Patent ID: 8704351

Claim:
A microelectronic assembly, comprising: a plurality of substrates superposed on one another in a vertical direction to form at least one stack, each substrate having a first surface, a second surface remote from the first surface, a plurality of first terminals exposed at the first surface and a plurality of second terminals exposed at the second surface and electrically connected with the first terminals by conductive elements extending through such substrate, the first terminals of each one of the plurality of substrates being provided on the first surface at a plurality of different horizontal positions of said assembly, the second terminals of each one of the plurality of substrates being further provided on the second surface at the plurality of different horizontal positions, the first and second terminals of the plurality of substrates thereby defining a set of columns, each column at a unique horizontal position, the columns of increasing or decreasing order whereby one column of a pair of columns which are horizontally adjacent to one other is of a next higher order than another column of the horizontally adjacent pair of columns, wherein at least some of the first terminals of a respective one of the plurality of substrates that are of a particular order column are electrically connected by at least some of the conductive elements extending through that substrate to at least some of the second terminals of that substrate that are of a next higher order column, the at least some of the second terminals of that substrate that are of the next higher order column are electrically connected to at least some of the first terminals of another one of the substrates that are of the next higher order column, and the at least some of the first terminals of the another one of the substrates that are of the next higher order column are electrically connected by at least some of the conductive elements extending through the another substrate to at least some of the second terminals of the another substrate that are of a still next higher order column, such that the at least some of the first terminals of the respective one of the plurality of substrates that are of the particular order column are electrically connected with the at least some of the second terminals of the another one of the plurality of substrates that are of a column which is ordered two higher than the particular order column, and a plurality of traces electrically connect at least some of the first terminals of a given one of the plurality of substrates that are of a highest order column to at least some of the first terminals of the given one of the plurality of substrates that are of a lowest order column.