510, and memory chips 512 housed within the shield 514, along with the extension 515 underneath the memory modules 510.

FIGS. 6A-E illustrate an example process flow for assembling a system 600 with a one-piece semi-rigid extended EMI shield 614. In some embodiments, the EMI shield 614 may be implemented using the designs of EMI shields 200, 400. It will be appreciated in light of the present disclosure that the illustrated process flow is only one example methodology for arriving at a system 600 with a one-piece semi-rigid extended EMI shield 614.

In the illustrated example, the process flow is optimized to reduce the number of reflow steps by pre-inserting the EMI shield 614 into the clips 616, thus reducing two reflow steps for the EMI shield 614 and clips 616, respectively, into a single reflow step.

In FIG. 6A, a printed circuit board (PCB) 602, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) 606, a memory connector 608 (e.g., a SODIMM connector), a set of clips 616, and an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield 614 are received. The EMI shield 614 includes a top portion and a bottom portion, where the bottom portion is designed to extend at least partially underneath a memory module (e.g., a SODIMM module) and the top portion is openable (e.g., an openable lid). Moreover, the EMI shield 614 is “pre-inserted” into the clips 616. For example, before the components are attached to the PCB 602, the EMI shield 614 is inserted into the clips 616 (or the clips 616 are clipped onto the EMI shield 614), thus enabling the EMI shield 614 and the clips 616 to be attached to the PCB 602 with a single reflow.

In FIG. 6B, the SoC 606, memory connector 608, clips 616, and EMI shield 614 (pre-inserted into the clips 616) are pick-and-placed onto the PCB 602 and attached via reflow.

In FIG. 6C, the top portion/lid of the EMI shield 614 is opened.

In FIG. 6D, a memory module 610 (e.g., a SODIMM module) is inserted into the memory connector 608.

In FIG. 6E, the top portion/lid of the EMI shield 614 is closed.

FIGS. 7A-E illustrate another example process flow for forming a system 600 with a one-piece semi-rigid extended EMI shield 614. In some embodiments, the EMI shield 614 may be implemented using the designs of EMI shields 200, 400. It will be appreciated in light of the present disclosure that the illustrated process flow is only one example methodology for arriving at a system 600 with a one-piece semi-rigid extended EMI shield 614.

In the illustrated example, the process flow is optimized to reduce the number of reflow steps using a temporary standoff 618 to hold the EMI shield 614 during the reflow process, which is subsequently removed after insertion of the memory module 610.

In FIG. 7A, a printed circuit board (PCB) 602, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) 606, a memory connector 608 (e.g., SODIMM connector), a set of clips 616, an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield 614, and a temporary standoff 618 are received.

In FIG. 7B, the SoC 606, memory connector 608, clips 616, and EMI shield 614 are pick-and-placed onto the PCB 602, with the temporary standoff 618 inserted between the PCB 602 and the openable end of the EMI shield 614. The components are then attached to the PCB 602 via reflow.

In FIG. 7C, the top portion/lid of the EMI shield 614 is opened.

In FIG. 7D, the temporary standoff 618 is removed, and a memory module 610 (e.g., SODIMM module) is inserted into the memory connector 608.

In FIG. 7E, the top portion/lid of the EMI shield 614 is closed.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a system 800 with a two-piece extended EMI shield 814 for memory modules 110. In the illustrated embodiment, system 800 is similar to system 100, except the EMI shield 814 is designed as a two-piece housing with a bottom portion 814a (e.g., base) and a top portion 814b (e.g., removable lid), which are collectively referred to as EMI shield 814. Moreover, the EMI shield 814 is partially removable. For example, the lid 814b may be designed to clip or snap on and off the base 814a. In this manner, the lid 814b can be removed to add and/or remove memory modules 110.

Further, the EMI shield 814 extends or wraps underneath the memory module 110 adjacent to the SoC 106, which enables the associated ground PTHs 104 in the PCB 102 (e.g., on the side of the EMI shield 814 adjacent to the SoC 106) to be shifted farther away from the SoC 106 without moving the memory connectors 108, memory modules 110, or EMI shield 814. In this manner, the ground PTHs 104 and associated ground contacts (not shown) in the PCB 102 do not interfere with the memory routing channels 103a,b in the PCB 102 (e.g., near the SoC 106), and the EMI shield 814 still fully encloses the memory modules 110, which enables the size of the PCB 102 to be reduced without sacrificing EMI shielding efficiency.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a two-piece extended EMI shield 900 for memory modules (e.g., SODIMMs). In the illustrated embodiment, the EMI shield 900 is two-piece EMI housing with a bottom portion 902 (referred to as the base) and a top portion 904 (referred to as the lid), which are collectively designed to substantially enclose memory modules when attached to a printed circuit board (PCB) (or another substrate).

The base 902 includes side walls designed to extend around or surround the sides/perimeter of the memory modules. The lid 904 includes a top cover designed to extend over or cover the top of the memory modules, along with side walls designed to overlap with the corresponding side walls on the base 902. Moreover, the lid 904 is removable and may be designed to clip or snap on and off the base 902, thus enabling memory modules to be added or removed after the EMI shield 900 has been assembled.

Further, the base 902 of the EMI shield 900 includes a bottom extension 906 designed to extend or wrap underneath an edge of one of the memory modules, which enables corresponding ground contacts (e.g., strips/pads) and plated through holes (PTHs) on the PCB to be repositioned under the memory module (e.g., farther away from other nearby components such as an SoC/CPU) without shifting the position of the memory modules, memory connectors, or EMI shield 900 on the PCB. In this manner, the ground contacts and PTHs on the PCB do not interfere with other nearby components on the PCB—such as memory routing for the SoC/CPU—and the EMI shield 900 still fully encloses the memory modules, which enables the size of the PCB to be reduced without sacrificing EMI shielding efficiency.

The EMI shield 900 also includes three circular mechanical feet 908 on the bottom extension 906 of the base 902, which are designed to be attached to the PCB for structural support.

The EMI shield 900 also includes an edge foot 910 on the bottom extension 906 of the base 902, which is a conductive edge designed to be electrically coupled (e.g., soldered) to the ground contacts (e.g., strips/pads) and associated ground PTHs on the PCB.

In some embodiments, for example, the base 902 and the edge foot 910 on the bottom extension 906 may be soldered to ground strips/pads on the PCB to permanently attach (and ground) the base 902 of the housing 900 to the PCB, while the removable lid 904 may be removably clipped or snapped on and off the base 902.

FIGS. 10A-C illustrate an example process flow for forming a system 1000 with a two-piece extended EMI shield 1014. In some embodiments, the EMI shield 1014 may be implemented using the design of EMI shield 900. It will be appreciated in light of the present disclosure that the illustrated process flow is only one example methodology for arriving at a system 1000 with a two-piece extended EMI shield 1014.

In FIG. 10A, a printed circuit board (PCB) 1002, memory connectors 1008 (e.g., SODIMM connectors), and an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield 1014 are received. The EMI shield 1014 includes a bottom portion (base) 1014a and a top portion (removable lid) 1014b, which are collectively referred to as EMI shield 1014, where the bottom portion 1014a includes side walls and a bottom extension 1015 to extend at least partially underneath an edge of one of the memory modules (e.g., SODIMM) and the top portion 1014b is removable (e.g., a removable lid). The memory connector 1008 and the base 1014a of the EMI shield 1014 are pick-and-placed onto the PCB 1002 and attached via reflow. In some embodiments, other components may also be attached to the PCB 1002 (e.g., an SoC).

In FIG. 10B, memory modules 1010 (e.g., SODIMMs) with memory chips 1012 (e.g., DRAM) are inserted into the memory connectors 1008.

In FIG. 10C, after the memory modules 1010 are inserted into the memory connectors 1008, the top portion 1014b (e.g., the removable lid) of the EMI shield 1014 is attached or clipped onto the bottom portion 1014a (e.g., the base) of the EMI shield 1014.

FIG. 11 illustrates a graph 1100 showing the EMI shielding performance of an extended EMI shield. In particular, graph 1100 shows electromagnetic radiation detected when using no shield 1101 versus the extended EMI shield 1102. In the illustrated performance evaluation, a SODIMM module and associated connector are implemented on a PCB, and a Wi-Fi antenna is placed approximately 1 inch from the edge of the SODIMM module. The radiation from SODIMM is captured by simulating the coupling between the microstrip on the SODIMM module and the Wi-Fi antenna. As shown in performance graph 1100, the extended EMI shield design 1102 provides over 10 decibels (dB) of shielding effectiveness across all Wi-Fi bands. Thus, the extended EMI shield 1102 has similar or better shielding effectiveness as conventional EMI shields, while providing other benefits such as smaller PCB size and optimized ground PTH placement.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional side view of an integrated circuit device assembly 1200 that may include any of the embodiments disclosed herein. In some embodiments, for example, the IC components 1220, 1224, 1226, 1232 of the integrated circuit device assembly 1200 may include one or more EMI shields according to any of the embodiments disclosed herein (e.g., EMI shield 114, 200, 400, 514, 614, 814, 900, 1014), such as an EMI shield that extends partially underneath one or more memory modules.

In some embodiments, the integrated circuit device assembly 1200 may be a microelectronic assembly. The integrated circuit device assembly 1200 includes a number of components disposed on a circuit board 1202 (which may be a motherboard, system board, mainboard, etc.). The integrated circuit device assembly 1200 includes components disposed on a first face 1240 of the circuit board 1202 and an opposing second face 1242 of the circuit board 1202; generally, components may be disposed on one or both faces 1240 and 1242. Any of the integrated circuit components discussed below with reference to the integrated circuit device assembly 1200 may take the form of any suitable ones of the embodiments of the microelectronic assemblies disclosed herein.

In some embodiments, the circuit board 1202 may be a printed circuit board (PCB) including multiple metal (or interconnect) layers separated from one another by layers of dielectric material and interconnected by electrically conductive vias. The individual metal layers comprise conductive traces. Any one or more of the metal layers may be formed in a desired circuit pattern to route electrical signals (optionally in conjunction with other metal layers) between the components coupled to the circuit board 1202. In other embodiments, the circuit board 1202 may be a non-PCB substrate. The integrated circuit device assembly 1200 illustrated in FIG. 12 includes a package-on-interposer structure 1236 coupled to the first face 1240 of the circuit board 1202 by coupling components 1216. The coupling components 1216 may electrically and mechanically couple the package-on-interposer structure 1236 to the circuit board 1202, and may include solder balls (as shown in FIG. 12), pins (e.g., as part of a pin grid array (PGA), contacts (e.g., as part of a land grid array (LGA)), male and female portions of a socket, an adhesive, an underfill material, and/or any other suitable electrical and/or mechanical coupling structure. The coupling components 1216 may serve as the coupling components illustrated or described for any of the substrate assembly or substrate assembly components described herein, as appropriate.

The package-on-interposer structure 1236 may include an integrated circuit component 1220 coupled to an interposer 1204 by coupling components 1218. The coupling components 1218 may take any suitable form for the application, such as the forms discussed above with reference to the coupling components 1216. Although a single integrated circuit component 1220 is shown in FIG. 12, multiple integrated circuit components may be coupled to the interposer 1204; indeed, additional interposers may be coupled to the interposer 1204. The interposer 1204 may provide an intervening substrate used to bridge the circuit board 1202 and the integrated circuit component 1220.

The integrated circuit component 1220 may be a packaged or unpackaged integrated circuit product that includes one or more integrated circuit dies and/or one or more other suitable components. A packaged integrated circuit component comprises one or more integrated circuit dies mounted on a package substrate with the integrated circuit dies and package substrate encapsulated in a casing material, such as a metal, plastic, glass, or ceramic. In one example of an unpackaged integrated circuit component 1220, a single monolithic integrated circuit die comprises solder bumps attached to contacts on the die. The solder bumps allow the die to be directly attached to the interposer 1204. The integrated circuit component 1220 can comprise one or more computing system components, such as one or more processor units (e.g., system-on-a-chip (SoC), processor core, graphics processor unit (GPU), accelerator, chipset processor), I/O controller, memory, or network interface controller. In some embodiments, the integrated circuit component 1220 can comprise one or more additional active or passive devices such as capacitors, decoupling capacitors, resistors, inductors, fuses, diodes, transformers, sensors, electrostatic discharge (ESD) devices, and memory devices.

In embodiments where the integrated circuit component 1220 comprises multiple integrated circuit dies, they dies can be of the same type (a homogeneous multi-die integrated circuit component) or of two or more different types (a heterogeneous multi-die integrated circuit component). A multi-die integrated circuit component can be referred to as a multi-chip package (MCP) or multi-chip module (MCM).

In addition to comprising one or more processor units, the integrated circuit component 1220 can comprise additional components, such as embedded DRAM, stacked high bandwidth memory (HBM), shared cache memories, input/output (I/O) controllers, or memory controllers. Any of these additional components can be located on the same integrated circuit die as a processor unit, or on one or more integrated circuit dies separate from the integrated circuit dies comprising the processor units. These separate integrated circuit dies can be referred to as “chiplets”. In embodiments where an integrated circuit component comprises multiple integrated circuit dies, interconnections between dies can be provided by the package substrate, one or more silicon interposers, one or more silicon bridges embedded in the package substrate (such as Intel® embedded multi-die interconnect bridges (EMIBs)), or combinations thereof.

Generally, the interposer 1204 may spread connections to a wider pitch or reroute a connection to a different connection. For example, the interposer 1204 may couple the integrated circuit component 1220 to a set of ball grid array (BGA) conductive contacts of the coupling components 1216 for coupling to the circuit board 1202. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 12, the integrated circuit component 1220 and the circuit board 1202 are attached to opposing sides of the interposer 1204; in other embodiments, the integrated circuit component 1220 and the circuit board 1202 may be attached to a same side of the interposer 1204. In some embodiments, three or more components may be interconnected by way of the interposer 1204.

In some embodiments, the interposer 1204 may be formed as a PCB, including multiple metal layers separated from one another by layers of dielectric material and interconnected by electrically conductive vias. In some embodiments, the interposer 1204 may be formed of an epoxy resin, a fiberglass-reinforced epoxy resin, an epoxy resin with inorganic fillers, a ceramic material, or a polymer material such as polyimide. In some embodiments, the interposer 1204 may be formed of alternate rigid or flexible materials that may include the same materials described above for use in a semiconductor substrate, such as silicon, germanium, and other group III-V and group IV materials. The interposer 1204 may include metal interconnects 1208 and vias 1210, including but not limited to through hole vias 1210-1 (that extend from a first face 1250 of the interposer 1204 to a second face 1254 of the interposer 1204), blind vias 1210-2 (that extend from the first or second faces 1250 or 1254 of the interposer 1204 to an internal metal layer), and buried vias 1210-3 (that connect internal metal layers).

In some embodiments, the interposer 1204 can comprise a silicon interposer. Through silicon vias (TSV) extending through the silicon interposer can connect connections on a first face of a silicon interposer to an opposing second face of the silicon interposer. In some embodiments, an interposer 1204 comprising a silicon interposer can further comprise one or more routing layers to route connections on a first face of the interposer 1204 to an opposing second face of the interposer 1204.

The interposer 1204 may further include embedded devices 1214, including both passive and active devices. Such devices may include, but are not limited to, capacitors, decoupling capacitors, resistors, inductors, fuses, diodes, transformers, sensors, electrostatic discharge (ESD) devices, and memory devices. More complex devices such as radio frequency devices, power amplifiers, power management devices, antennas, arrays, sensors, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices may also be formed on the interposer 1204. The package-on-interposer structure 1236 may take the form of any of the package-on-interposer structures known in the art. In embodiments where the interposer is a non-printed circuit board

The integrated circuit device assembly 1200 may include an integrated circuit component 1224 coupled to the first face 1240 of the circuit board 1202 by coupling components 1222. The coupling components 1222 may take the form of any of the embodiments discussed above with reference to the coupling components 1216, and the integrated circuit component 1224 may take the form of any of the embodiments discussed above with reference to the integrated circuit component 1220.

The integrated circuit device assembly 1200 illustrated in FIG. 12 includes a package-on-package structure 1234 coupled to the second face 1242 of the circuit board 1202 by coupling components 1228. The package-on-package structure 1234 may include an integrated circuit component 1226 and an integrated circuit component 1232 coupled together by coupling components 1230 such that the integrated circuit component 1226 is disposed between the circuit board 1202 and the integrated circuit component 1232. The coupling components 1228 and 1230 may take the form of any of the embodiments of the coupling components 1216 discussed above, and the integrated circuit components 1226 and 1232 may take the form of any of the embodiments of the integrated circuit component 1220 discussed above. The package-on-package structure 1234 may be configured in accordance with any of the package-on-package structures known in the art.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example electrical device 1300 that may include one or more of the embodiments disclosed herein. In some embodiments, for example, the electrical device 1300 may include an EMI shield for memory 1304 according to any of the embodiments disclosed herein (e.g., EMI shield 114, 200, 400, 514, 614, 814, 900, 1014).

A number of components are illustrated in FIG. 13 as included in the electrical device 1300, but any one or more of these components may be omitted or duplicated, as suitable for the application. In some embodiments, some or all of the components included in the electrical device 1300 may be attached to one or more motherboards, mainboards, or system boards. In some embodiments, one or more of these components are fabricated onto a single system-on-a-chip (SoC) die.

Additionally, in various embodiments, the electrical device 1300 may not include one or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 13, but the electrical device 1300 may include interface circuitry for coupling to the one or more components. For example, the electrical device 1300 may not include a display device 1306, but may include display device interface circuitry (e.g., a connector and driver circuitry) to which a display device 1306 may be coupled. In another set of examples, the electrical device 1300 may not include an audio input device 1324 or an audio output device 1308, but may include audio input or output device interface circuitry (e.g., connectors and supporting circuitry) to which an audio input device 1324 or audio output device 1308 may be coupled.

The electrical device 1300 may include one or more processor units 1302 (e.g., one or more processor units). As used herein, the terms “processor unit”, “processing unit” or “processor” may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that may be stored in registers and/or memory. The processor unit 1302 may include one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), general-purpose GPUs (GPGPUs), accelerated processing units (APUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), neural network processing units (NPUs), data processor units (DPUs), accelerators (e.g., graphics accelerator, compression accelerator, artificial intelligence accelerator), controller cryptoprocessors (specialized processors that execute cryptographic algorithms within hardware), server processors, controllers, or any other suitable type of processor units. As such, the processor unit can be referred to as an XPU (or xPU).

The electrical device 1300 may include a memory 1304, which may itself include one or more memory devices such as volatile memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM)), non-volatile memory (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, chalcogenide-based phase-change non-voltage memories), solid state memory, and/or a hard drive. In some embodiments, the memory 1304 may include memory that is located on the same integrated circuit die as the processor unit 1302. This memory may be used as cache memory (e.g., Level 1 (L1), Level 2 (L2), Level 3 (L3), Level 4 (L4), Last Level Cache (LLC)) and may include embedded dynamic random access memory (eDRAM) or spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM).

In some embodiments, the electrical device 1300 can comprise one or more processor units 1302 that are heterogeneous or asymmetric to another processor unit 1302 in the electrical device 1300. There can be a variety of differences between the processing units 1302 in a system in terms of a spectrum of metrics of merit including architectural, microarchitectural, thermal, power consumption characteristics, and the like. These differences can effectively manifest themselves as asymmetry and heterogeneity among the processor units 1302 in the electrical device 1300.

In some embodiments, the electrical device 1300 may include a communication component 1312 (e.g., one or more communication components). For example, the communication component 1312 can manage wireless communications for the transfer of data to and from the electrical device 1300. The term “wireless” and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a nonsolid medium. The term “wireless” does not imply that the associated devices do not contain any wires, although in some embodiments they might not.

The communication component 1312 may implement any of a number of wireless standards or protocols, including but not limited to Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standards including Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 family), IEEE 802.16 standards (e.g., IEEE 802.16-2005 Amendment), Long-Term Evolution (LTE) project along with any amendments, updates, and/or revisions (e.g., advanced LTE project, ultra mobile broadband (UMB) project (also referred to as “3GPP2”), etc.). IEEE 802.16 compatible Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) networks are generally referred to as WiMAX networks, an acronym that stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, which is a certification mark for products that pass conformity and interoperability tests for the IEEE 802.16 standards. The communication component 1312 may operate in accordance with a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Evolved HSPA (E-HSPA), or LTE network. The communication component 1312 may operate in accordance with Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), or Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN). The communication component 1312 may operate in accordance with Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), and derivatives thereof, as well as any other wireless protocols that are designated as 3G, 4G, 5G, and beyond. The communication component 1312 may operate in accordance with other wireless protocols in other embodiments. The electrical device 1300 may include an antenna 1322 to facilitate wireless communications and/or to receive other wireless communications (such as AM or FM radio transmissions).

In some embodiments, the communication component 1312 may manage wired communications, such as electrical, optical, or any other suitable communication protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standards). As noted above, the communication component 1312 may include multiple communication components. For instance, a first communication component 1312 may be dedicated to shorter-range wireless communications such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and a second communication component 1312 may be dedicated to longer-range wireless communications such as global positioning system (GPS), EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, LTE, EV-DO, or others. In some embodiments, a first communication component 1312 may be dedicated to wireless communications, and a second communication component 1312 may be dedicated to wired communications.

The electrical device 1300 may include battery/power circuitry 1314. The battery/power circuitry 1314 may include one or more energy storage devices (e.g., batteries or capacitors) and/or circuitry for coupling components of the electrical device 1300 to an energy source separate from the electrical device 1300 (e.g., AC line power).

The electrical device 1300 may include a display device 1306 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The display device 1306 may include one or more embedded or wired or wirelessly connected external visual indicators, such as a heads-up display, a computer monitor, a projector, a touchscreen display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light-emitting diode display, or a flat panel display.

The electrical device 1300 may include an audio output device 1308 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The audio output device 1308 may include any embedded or wired or wirelessly connected external device that generates an audible indicator, such speakers, headsets, or earbuds.

The electrical device 1300 may include an audio input device 1324 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). The audio input device 1324 may include any embedded or wired or wirelessly connected device that generates a signal representative of a sound, such as microphones, microphone arrays, or digital instruments (e.g., instruments having a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) output). The electrical device 1300 may include a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) device 1318 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above), such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. The GNSS device 1318 may be in communication with a satellite-based system and may determine a geolocation of the electrical device 1300 based on information received from one or more GNSS satellites, as known in the art.

The electrical device 1300 may include other output device(s) 1310 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). Examples of the other output device(s) 1310 may include an audio codec, a video codec, a printer, a wired or wireless transmitter for providing information to other devices, or an additional storage device.

The electrical device 1300 may include other input device(s) 1320 (or corresponding interface circuitry, as discussed above). Examples of the other input device(s) 1320 may include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, an image capture device (e.g., monoscopic or stereoscopic camera), a trackball, a trackpad, a touchpad, a keyboard, a cursor control device such as a mouse, a stylus, a touchscreen, proximity sensor, microphone, a bar code reader, a Quick Response (QR) code reader, electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, PPG (photoplethysmogram) sensor, galvanic skin response sensor, any other sensor, or a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader.

The electrical device 1300 may have any desired form factor, such as a hand-held or mobile electrical device (e.g., a cell phone, a smart phone, a mobile internet device, a music player, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a 2-in-1 convertible computer, a portable all-in-one computer, a netbook computer, an ultrabook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an ultra mobile personal computer, a portable gaming console, etc.), a desktop electrical device, a server, a rack-level computing solution (e.g., blade, tray or sled computing systems), a workstation or other networked computing component, a printer, a scanner, a display device (e.g., monitor, television), a set-top box, an entertainment control unit, a video game console, a video playback device, a vehicle control unit, a digital camera, a digital video recorder, a wearable electrical device or an embedded computing system (e.g., computing systems that are part of a vehicle, smart home appliance, consumer electronics product or equipment, manufacturing equipment). In some embodiments, the electrical device 1300 may be any other electronic device that processes data. In some embodiments, the electrical device 1300 may comprise multiple discrete physical components. Given the range of devices that the electrical device 1300 can be manifested as in various embodiments, in some embodiments, the electrical device 1300 can be referred to as a computing device or a computing system.

While the concepts of the present disclosure are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described herein in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit the concepts of the present disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the present disclosure and the appended claims.

In the drawings, some structural or method features may be shown in specific arrangements and/or orderings. However, it should be appreciated that such specific arrangements and/or orderings may not be required. Rather, in some embodiments, such features may be arranged in a different manner and/or order than shown in the illustrative figures. Additionally, the inclusion of a structural or method feature in a particular figure is not meant to imply that such feature is required in all embodiments and, in some embodiments, may not be included or may be combined with other features. Further, it should be understood that the various embodiments shown in the figures are illustrative representations and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Moreover, the illustrations and/or descriptions of various embodiments may be simplified or approximated for ease of understanding, and as a result, they may not necessarily reflect the level of precision nor variation that may be present in actual embodiments. For example, while some figures generally indicate straight lines, right angles, and smooth surfaces, actual implementations of the disclosed embodiments may have less than perfect straight lines and right angles, and some features may have surface topography or otherwise be non-smooth, given real-world limitations of fabrication processes. Similarly, illustrations and/or descriptions of how components are arranged may be simplified or approximated for ease of understanding and may vary by some margin of error in actual embodiments (e.g., due to fabrication processes, etc.).

Unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects to which are being referred and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any other manner.

The terms “substantially,” “close,” “approximately,” “near,” and “about,” generally refer to being within +/−10% of a target value (unless otherwise specified). Similarly, terms describing spatial relationships, such as “perpendicular,” “orthogonal,” or “coplanar,” may refer to being substantially within the described spatial relationships (e.g., within +/−10 degrees of orthogonality).

Certain terminology may also be used in the foregoing description for the purpose of reference only, and thus are not intended to be limiting. For example, terms such as “upper,” “lower,” “above,” “below,” “bottom,” and “top” refer to directions in the drawings to which reference is made. Terms such as “front,” “back,” “rear,” and “side” describe the orientation and/or location of portions of the component within a consistent but arbitrary frame of reference which is made clear by reference to the text and the associated drawings describing the component under discussion. Such terminology may include the words specifically mentioned above, derivatives thereof, and words of similar import.