An active reconfigurable circuit board

This paper introduces an innovative reconfigurable circuit board for rapid system prototyping. This system supports high pin-count packages and high density system integration requirements, and can be programmed to interconnect integrated circuits and other components at near-intra-chip density. This paper presents the concept and investigates several aspects related to its feasibility. Considered factors include technological and physical constraints; architectural and system aspects; design and technology considerations. Preliminary results are promising, confirming that this smart reconfigurable circuit board can be implemented using a wafer-scale approach in a mature and low-cost 6-metal layer CMOS 0.18 mum technology, with the associated classical design CAD tools and flow. The achieved contact density is sufficient to interconnect components packaged with todaypsilas peripheral I/O and fine-pitched BGA packages.