TWI864818B - Circuit board assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

A circuit board assembly adapted to connect an expansion card is provided. The circuit board assembly comprises a board body, a first connecting port, a second connecting port, and a plurality of third connecting ports. The first connecting port is disposed on the board body for connecting the expansion card. The second connecting port is disposed on the board body for supplying power to the expansion card. The plurality of third connecting ports is disposed on the board body and electrically connected to the second connecting port, and is adapted for accessing external power.

Description

Circuit board assembly

This case relates to an electronic device, and more particularly to a circuit board assembly.

As the performance of graphics cards increases, the power consumption of graphics cards is also increasing. The traditional method of using the motherboard's PCI-E port to power the graphics card is no longer suitable for graphics cards with power consumption exceeding 75W. When the power consumption of a graphics card exceeds 75W, the conventional power supply method is to use an external power supply to directly power the graphics card.

However, the power port provided by the external power supply is incompatible with the power port on the graphics card. For example, the new generation of PCI-E 5.0 standard graphics cards need to be equipped with a 16-pin power port, whose official name is 12VHPWR port, to provide a power supply of up to 600W, but traditional external power supplies are often only equipped with 8-pin power ports. To solve this problem, graphics cards are often shipped with an adapter cable for users to connect the power port on the external power supply to the power port on the graphics card.

This extra adapter cable not only increases the cost of the device and affects the overall appearance, but also increases the difficulty of assembly and cable management due to its hard material, and even causes problems with poor plugging, which leads to safety hazards. In addition, for users with external power supplies that support 16-pin power supply ports, this adapter cable will actually cause a waste of resources.

The present invention provides a circuit board assembly suitable for installing an expansion card. The circuit board assembly includes a board body, a first connection port, a second connection port and a plurality of third connection ports. The first connection port is arranged on the board body and suitable for inserting the expansion card. The second connection port is arranged on the board body and suitable for supplying power to the expansion card. The plurality of third connection ports are arranged on the board body and electrically connected to the second connection port and suitable for obtaining external power.

The circuit board assembly of the present case has a first connection port, a second connection port, and a plurality of third connection ports. The first connection port is suitable for inserting an expansion card. The second connection port is suitable for supplying power to the expansion card. The third connection port is suitable for connecting to an external power source to obtain external power. In this way, through the circuit board assembly provided by the present case, the user can use the third connection port on the circuit board assembly to obtain external power, and supply the external power to the expansion card through the second connection port on the circuit board assembly. The circuit board assembly provided by the present case only needs to be connected using a simple power cord, and no special adapter cable is required to connect the external power source and the expansion card. Therefore, it can effectively reduce the cost of the device, improve the problems such as difficult assembly and poor plugging caused by the use of adapter cables, and avoid waste of resources caused by additional adapter cables.

The specific implementation of the present invention will be described in more detail below in conjunction with the schematic diagram. The advantages and features of the present invention will become clearer based on the following description and the scope of the patent application. It should be noted that the diagrams are all in a very simplified form and are not in exact proportions, and are only used to conveniently and clearly assist in explaining the purpose of the present invention.

The first figure is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a circuit board assembly 100 provided according to an embodiment of the present invention. The second figure is a schematic diagram of the circuit board assembly 100 and the expansion card 200 shown in the first figure before assembly. The circuit board assembly 100 in the figure is a motherboard.

As shown in the figure, the circuit board assembly 100 provided in the present invention is suitable for installing an expansion card 200, such as a display card with a PCI-E interface.

The circuit board assembly 100 includes a board body 120 , a first connection port 130 , a second connection port 140 , a plurality of third connection ports 150 (three third connection ports 150 are shown in the figure as an example), and a fourth connection port 160 .

The first connection port 130 is disposed on the board 120 and is suitable for inserting the expansion card 200. The second connection port 140 is disposed on the board 120 and is suitable for supplying power to the expansion card 200. In one embodiment, the second connection port 140 can also be used to obtain external power.

The third ports 150 are disposed on the board 120 and electrically connected to the second port 140 and the fourth port 160 for obtaining external power. The fourth port 160 is disposed on the board 120 for supplying power to the expansion card 200 , and the interface of the second port 140 is different from that of the fourth port 160 .

In one embodiment, as shown in the figure, the second connection port 140 and the third connection port 150 are arranged together and are disposed at the edge of the board 120. However, this is not limited thereto. According to actual needs, the second connection port 140 and the third connection port 150 can be disposed at any position on the board 120.

The first connection port 130 and the fourth connection port 160 are arranged in a straight line. In one embodiment, the first connection port 130 and the fourth connection port 160 can be integrated into the same socket 170. However, it is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the first connection port 130 and the fourth connection port 160 can also be separated by a certain distance.

The expansion card 200 has a first expansion card connection port 230, a second expansion card connection port 240, and a third expansion card connection port 250. The first expansion card connection port 230 is used to be plugged into the first connection port 130. The second expansion card connection port 240 and the third expansion card connection port 250 correspond to the second connection port 140 and the fourth connection port 160, respectively. The expansion card 200 can selectively communicate through the second connection port 140 or the fourth connection port 160 to obtain power supply.

Specifically, if the expansion card 200 to be installed does not have the third expansion card connection port 250 corresponding to the fourth connection port 160, the expansion card 200 can communicate with the circuit board assembly 100 and obtain power through the second connection port 140; conversely, if the expansion card 200 to be installed does not have the second expansion card connection port 240 corresponding to the second connection port 140, the expansion card 200 can communicate with the circuit board assembly 100 and obtain power through the fourth connection port 160. The expansion card 200 in the second figure has plugs corresponding to both the second connection port 140 and the fourth connection port 160, and the expansion card 200 can choose to obtain power from the second connection port 140 or the fourth connection port 160.

Specifically, the first port 130 may be a PCI-E port, and the second port 140 and the fourth port 160 are both power ports, suitable for communicating with the expansion card 200 and supplying power to the expansion card 200. The interface of the second port 140 is different from the interface of the fourth port 160, so as to facilitate matching with different expansion cards 200. In one embodiment, the interface of the second port 140 may be connected by pins to match with traditional power connectors, such as 12VHPWR connectors. The interface of the fourth port 160 may be connected by gold fingers to facilitate integration with the first port 130 into the same socket 170.

The third connection port 150 is an external power connection port, suitable for obtaining external power to provide to the expansion card 200. In one embodiment, the second connection port 140 is not only suitable for supplying power to the expansion card 200, but also can be used as an external power connection port to connect to an external power source (not shown) to obtain power provided to the expansion card 200. The interface of the second connection port 140 is different from the interface of the third connection port 150, so as to facilitate matching with different external power sources. The third figure will provide a more detailed description of this power transmission architecture.

In one embodiment, the maximum power supply wattage of the second port 140 is higher than the maximum power supply wattage of the third port 150 to meet the needs of the expansion card 200. The power received by multiple third ports 150 can be stacked and provided to the second port 140, and provided to the expansion card 200 through the second port 140. For example, the second port 140 can be a 12VHPWR connector, and the third port 150 can be an EPS 8-pin 12V connector. In one embodiment, the power received by the third port 150 can be directly provided to the fourth port 160 without passing through the second port 140, and then provided to the expansion card 200 through the fourth port 160.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the circuit board assembly 100 corresponding to FIG. 1. In the figure, the power transmission path is drawn with a solid line, and the signal transmission path is drawn with a dashed line and a dot-link line. The dashed line specifically refers to the signal transmission between the control unit 180 and the third connection port 150, and the dot-link line shows the transmission path of the detection signal SS generated by the control unit 180.

As shown in the figure, the circuit board assembly 100 has a control unit 180. The control unit 180 is disposed on the board 120 in the first figure and is electrically connected to the second connection port 140, the plurality of third connection ports 150 and the fourth connection port 160.

The control unit 180 detects the plug-in status of each third connection port 150 to generate a detection signal SS to provide to the second connection port 140 and the fourth connection port 160. In one embodiment, the control unit 180 is electrically connected to the corresponding power detection contact P1 of each third connection port 150 to confirm the plug-in status of each third connection port 150. In one embodiment, the control unit 180 can be a basic input and output system (BIOS), which is configured with a control chip and includes a general purpose input and output (GPIO) contact P0. The control chip can be, for example, an embedded controller or an input and output chip (Super IO).

Specifically, the control unit 180 can generate a detection signal SS according to the detected plug-in status of the third connection port 150 and provide it to the second connection port 140 and the fourth connection port 160 to facilitate communication with the expansion card 200. The detection signal SS corresponds to the number of the third connection ports 150 that are plugged with power.

The following describes an embodiment of the control unit 180 generating the detection signal SS. Please refer to the third figure, each of the third connection ports 150 has a specific detection pin (that is, the power detection contact P1 in the figure). Taking the EPS 8-pin 12V connector as an example, this detection pin can be PIN4 or PIN6. This detection pin can be used to detect whether each third connection port 150 successfully obtains external power.

The control unit 180 is directly connected to the power detection contact P1 of each third connection port 150 through the universal input/output contact P0 to detect the plug-in status of each third connection port 150 and generate a detection signal SS according to the amount of external power successfully obtained by these third connection ports 150.

For example, the detection signal SS may include two potential signals S0 and S1 to represent four plug-in states, as shown in the following table. Number of plugs S0 S1 0 H H 1 H H 2 L H 3 H L Table 1

As shown in Table 1, when the number of the third connection ports 150 connected to the power supply is 0 or 1, the potential signals S0 and S1 are both high potential signals; when the number of the third connection ports 150 connected to the power supply is 2, the potential signal S0 is a low potential signal and the potential signal S1 is a high potential signal; and when the number of the third connection ports 150 connected to the power supply is 3, that is, when all the third connection ports 150 in this embodiment are connected to the power supply, the potential signal S0 is a high potential signal and the potential signal S1 is a low potential signal. Through the difference between the potential signals S0 and S1, the expansion card 200 can confirm whether the power supply of the circuit board assembly 100 meets the demand.

It is worth noting that the aforementioned correspondence between the detection signal SS and the number of plug-ins is only one embodiment of the present case. The correspondence described in Table 1 is for an embodiment in which the number of the third connection ports 150 is three. However, the present case is not limited to this. If the circuit board assembly 100 is provided with a greater number of third connection ports 150, the detection signal SS can also adopt a different judgment logic, or increase the number of potential signals S0, S1. For example, if the number of the third connection ports 150 is four, in addition to the correspondence provided in Table 1, it is possible to add a judgment that the potential signals S0, S1 are both low, which corresponds to the number of plug-ins being 4.

In addition, this embodiment sets the plug quantity of 0 and 1 to correspond to the same detection signal SS. This is because the specification of the expansion card 200 of this embodiment requires at least two third connection ports 150 to receive power to meet the demand. Whether the plug quantity of the third connection port 150 is 0 or 1 has no difference to the expansion card 200 of this embodiment. However, the present case is not limited to this. In other embodiments, if the specification of the expansion card 200 only requires one third connection port 150 to receive power to meet the demand, different judgment logics can be adopted to set the plug quantity of 0 and 1 to correspond to different detection signals SS.

The control unit 180 of this embodiment needs to communicate with the expansion card 200 to confirm the power wattage required by the expansion card 200. The second connection port 140 includes at least one first power contact P2 and at least one first signal transmission contact P3. The figure shows a first power contact P2 and two first signal transmission contacts P3 as an example. The first power contact P2 is used to transmit power. In one embodiment, these first power contacts P2 may include a ground contact and a DC voltage contact. The first signal transmission contact P3 is used for signal communication.

For example, if the second connection port 140 is a 12VHPWR connector supporting PCI-E 5.0, the second connection port 140 will have twelve first power contacts P2 for transmitting power and four first signal transmission contacts P3 for signal communication.

The fourth connection port 160 includes at least one second power contact P4 and at least one second signal transmission contact P5. The figure shows a first power contact P2 and two first signal transmission contacts P3 as examples. The second power contact P4 is used to transmit power. In one embodiment, these second power contacts P4 may include a ground contact and a DC voltage contact. The second signal transmission contact P5 is used for signal communication.

The second port 140 and the fourth port 160 both have signal transmission contacts that can be used to communicate with the expansion card 200 to confirm the power wattage required by the expansion card 200. In contrast, unlike the second port 140 and the fourth port 160, the third port 150 does not have a signal transmission contact. The third port 150 only has a power contact and a power detection contact P1 for detecting the plug-in status. For example, if the third port 150 is a common EPS 8-pin 12V connector on a motherboard, the third port 150 will have three 12V power supply contacts, three ground contacts, and two power detection contacts P1, but no signal transmission contacts.

FIG. 4 shows a first embodiment of supplying power to an expansion card 400 through the circuit board assembly 100 of the present invention.

The expansion card 400 of this embodiment has a first expansion card connection port 430 and a second expansion card connection port 440, which correspond to the first connection port 130 and the second connection port 140 respectively. The first expansion card connection port 430 can be a PCI-E connection port, and the second expansion card connection port 440 is a power connection port.

The external power source 300 is electrically connected to the third connection port 150 of the circuit board assembly 100 through the power line 310. The second connection port 140 of the circuit board assembly 100 is electrically connected to the second expansion card connection port 440 through the power line 320. Since the second connection port 140 is electrically connected to the third connection port 150, the external power source 300 can supply power to the expansion card 400 through the third connection port 150 and the second connection port 140.

In this embodiment, in order to meet the specification requirements of the expansion card 400, the three third connection ports 150 in the figure are connected to the external power source 300 through the power line 310 to obtain external power. The second connection port 140 will add up the external power received by the three third connection ports 150 and provide it to the expansion card 400 through the power line 320 and the second expansion card connection port 440.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of supplying power to the expansion card 500 through the circuit board assembly 100 of the present invention.

The expansion card 500 of this embodiment is different from the embodiment of FIG. 4. The expansion card 500 of this embodiment is provided with a third expansion card connection port 550 near the first expansion card connection port 530. The third expansion card connection port 550 corresponds to the fourth connection port 160.

When the external power source 301 supports the second connection port 140 , as shown in the figure, the external power source 301 can supply power to the second connection port 140 of the circuit board assembly 100 through the power line 330 , and then supply power to the expansion card 200 through the fourth connection port 160 of the circuit board assembly 100 and the third expansion card connection port 550 on the expansion card 500 .

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of supplying power to an expansion card 600 through the circuit board assembly 100 of the present invention.

The expansion card 600 of this embodiment is similar to the expansion card 500 of the embodiment of FIG. 5 , and both have a first expansion card connection port 630 and a third expansion card connection port 650 . However, the external power supply 302 used in this embodiment does not support the second connection port 140 .

In this case, as shown in the figure, the external power source 302 can supply power to the third connection port 150 of the circuit board assembly 100 through the power line 340, and then supply power to the expansion card 600 through the third expansion card connection port 650 on the expansion card 600.

The circuit board assembly 100 of the present case has a first connection port 130, a second connection port 140 and a plurality of third connection ports 150. The first connection port 130 is suitable for inserting an expansion card 200, 400, 500, 600. The second connection port 140 is suitable for supplying power to the expansion card 200, 400, 500, 600. The third connection port 150 is suitable for connecting to an external power source 300, 301, 302 to obtain external power. In this way, through the circuit board assembly 100 provided by the present case, the user can use the third connection port 150 on the circuit board assembly 100 to obtain external power, and supply the external power to the expansion card 200, 400, 500, 600 through the second connection port 140 on the circuit board assembly 100. The circuit board assembly 100 provided in the present case only needs to use simple power cables 310, 320, 330, 340 for connection, and does not need to use special adapter cables to convert power transmission interfaces to connect the external power supply 300 and the expansion cards 200, 400, 500, 600. Therefore, the device cost can be effectively reduced, and the assembly difficulties and poor connection problems caused by the use of adapter cables can be improved, while avoiding the waste of resources caused by additional adapter cables.

The above is only the preferred embodiment of this case and does not limit this case in any way. Any technical personnel in the relevant technical field, within the scope of the technical means of this case, make any form of equivalent replacement or modification to the technical means and technical content disclosed in this case, which is within the scope of the technical means of this case and still falls within the scope of protection of this case.

100: PCB assembly 120: Board 130: First port 140: Second port 150: Third port 160: Fourth port 170: Socket 180: Control unit 200, 400, 500, 600: Expansion card 230, 430, 530, 630: First expansion card port 240, 440: Second expansion card port 250, 550, 650: Third expansion card port 300, 301, 302: External power supply 310, 320, 330, 340: Power cord SS: Detection signal S0, S1: Potential signal P1: Power detection contact P2: First power contact P3: First signal transmission contact P4: Second power contact P5: Second signal transmission contact

The first figure is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a circuit board assembly provided according to an embodiment of the present invention; The second figure is a schematic diagram of the circuit board assembly shown in the first figure before being assembled with an expansion card; The third figure is a schematic diagram of a functional block of the circuit board assembly corresponding to the first figure; The fourth figure shows a first embodiment of supplying power to an expansion card through the circuit board assembly of the present invention; The fifth figure shows a second embodiment of supplying power to an expansion card through the circuit board assembly of the present invention; and The sixth figure shows a third embodiment of supplying power to an expansion card through the circuit board assembly of the present invention.

100: Circuit board assembly 120: Board 130: First port 140: Second port 150: Third port 160: Fourth port 170: Socket 200: Expansion card 230: First expansion card port 240: Second expansion card port 250: Third expansion card port

Claims (13)

A circuit board assembly is suitable for installing an expansion card, the circuit board assembly comprises: a board; a first connection port, arranged on the board, suitable for inserting the expansion card; a second connection port, arranged on the board, suitable for supplying power to the expansion card; a plurality of third connection ports, arranged on the board and electrically connected to the second connection port, suitable for obtaining external power; and a fourth connection port, arranged on the board, the first connection port and the fourth connection port are close to each other and arranged in a straight line, and the expansion card is selectively connected to the second connection port or the fourth connection port to obtain power. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the first connection port is a PCI-E connection port, the second connection port is a power connection port, and the third connection port is an external power connection port. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 2, wherein the interface of the second connection port is different from the interface of the third connection port. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 3, wherein the maximum power supply wattage of the second connection port is higher than the maximum power supply wattage of the third connection port. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 2, wherein the second connection port is a 12V HPWR connector and the third connection port is an EPS 8-pin 12V connector. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the fourth connection port is a power connection port, and the interface of the second connection port is different from the interface of the fourth connection port. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the second connection port includes at least one first power contact and at least one first signal transmission contact. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the fourth connection port includes at least one second power connection point and at least one second signal transmission connection point. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the third connection port only has a power contact and a power detection contact for detecting the plug-in status of the third connection port. The circuit board assembly as described in claim 1 further includes a control unit disposed on the board and electrically connected to the second connection port and the plurality of third connection ports. The control unit detects the plug-in status of each of the third connection ports to generate a detection signal to provide to the second connection port. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 10, wherein the detection signal corresponds to the number of third connection ports among the plurality of third connection ports that are plugged into a power source. The circuit board assembly as described in claim 1 further includes a control unit disposed on the board body and electrically connected to the fourth connection port, the second connection port and the plurality of third connection ports. The control unit detects the plug-in status of each of the third connection ports to generate a detection signal to provide to the fourth connection port and the second connection port. A circuit board assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the circuit board assembly is a motherboard.