Power supply adapter plate, rack-mounted server mainboard and rack-mounted server

Abstract

The invention relates to a power supply adapter plate, a rack-mounted server mainboard and a rack-mounted server. The power supply adapter plate comprises a substrate; the power connector female head is arranged on the top surface of the substrate and is used for being connected with a power supply unit; the power output contact is arranged on the top surface of the substrate; and the at least two first bus bars are arranged on the top surface of the substrate and have opposite polarities, the end parts of the first bus bars are electrically connected with the power supply connector female head, and the tail parts of the first bus bars are electrically connected with the power supply output contact, so that a path between the power supply connector female head and the power supply output contact is formed. By adopting the power supply adapter plate, the development period can be shortened and the consumption of manpower and material resources can be reduced when business scene changes are handled.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of PCB board design, and in particular to a power adapter board, a rack-mounted server motherboard and a rack-mounted server. Background Art

[0002] The appearance dimensions of rack-mounted servers are usually standardized and can be divided into several standards such as 1U, 2U, 3U, 4U, etc. Standardized rack-mounted servers can be compactly installed in the cabinet, with high space utilization, and are particularly suitable for environments with limited space and high-density computing requirements. Therefore, they are widely used in data centers and enterprise-level server rooms.

[0003] However, it is precisely because of the standardized structural design of rack servers that their scalability is poor and their business application scope is limited. For example, the original rack server is a 2U rack server with moderate storage and computing power. When the business scenario changes to higher-density computing requirements or non-standard applications, the 2U rack server's expandable space is insufficient to accommodate more hardware, such as storage devices, CPUs (Central Processing Units), GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), etc.

[0004] When business scenarios change, it is necessary to use larger rack servers. Also, rack server motherboards suitable for the changed business scenarios are needed, such as developing a power adapter board based on the original rack server motherboard. However, the development of power adapter boards is quite difficult. Summary of the invention

[0005] Based on this, it is necessary to provide a power adapter board that can shorten the development cycle and reduce the consumption of manpower and material resources to cope with changes in business scenarios.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a power adapter board, comprising:

[0007] substrate;

[0008] A power connector female head disposed on the top surface of the substrate, used for connecting to a power supply unit;

[0009] A power output contact disposed on the top surface of the substrate;

[0010] At least two first bus bars with opposite polarities are arranged on the top surface of the substrate, the ends of the first bus bars are electrically connected to the female head of the power connector, and the tails of the first bus bars are electrically connected to the power output contacts, so as to form a passage between the female head of the power connector and the power output contacts.

[0011] In one embodiment, it further comprises at least two screw holes for threaded connection with the air guide cover; the screw holes are arranged on one side of the first bus bar;

[0012] In the current flow direction of the passage, the end of the first bus bar is located on the left side of one screw hole, and the tail of the first bus bar is located on the right side of another screw hole;

[0013] Wherein, the air guide cover is used to dissipate heat for the female head of the power connector.

[0014] In one embodiment, it further includes a through hole; the first bus bar further includes a pin;

[0015] The pin passes through the power adapter board through the through hole.

[0016] In one of the embodiments, it further comprises a signal connector male head arranged on one side of the substrate, and the thickness of the power adapter board meets the thickness requirement of the signal connector male head.

[0017] In one of the embodiments, the substrate includes multiple circuit board layers stacked on each other; the circuit board layers include two signal layers, a top surface, a bottom surface, and multiple power / ground layers.

[0018] In one of the embodiments, a plurality of copper sheets are also laid on the top surface and the bottom surface of the substrate.

[0019] In one of the embodiments, the power output contact is a bright copper surface for electrical connection with the second bus bar;

[0020] The second bus bar is used to transfer the current input by the power supply unit to the original rack-mounted server mainboard; and the power adapter board is used to enhance the hardware expansion capability of the original rack-mounted server mainboard.

[0021] In one of the embodiments, it also includes an auxiliary signal connector arranged on the top surface of the substrate, which is used to transmit signals between the power supply unit and the original rack-mounted server motherboard; the power adapter board is used to enhance the hardware expansion capability of the original rack-mounted server motherboard.

[0022] In a second aspect, the present application also provides a rack-mounted server motherboard, comprising the power adapter board as described above.

[0023] In a third aspect, the present application further provides a rack-mounted server, wherein the rack-mounted server comprises the rack-mounted server mainboard as described above.

[0024] The power adapter board includes a substrate, a power connector female head disposed on the top surface of the substrate, a power output contact disposed on the top surface of the substrate, and at least two first bus bars with opposite polarities disposed on the top surface of the substrate, through which the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board can be improved, so that the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board can meet the power consumption requirement, thereby shortening the development cycle and reducing the consumption of manpower and material resources. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the conventional technology, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the conventional technology descriptions are briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0026] Figure 1 A 4U rack-mounted server involved in this application;

[0027] Figure 2 A power adapter board according to an embodiment;

[0028] Figure 3 A power adapter board according to another embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0029] Description of reference numerals:

[0030] 100, 4U rack-mounted server chassis; 102, 2U rack-mounted server motherboard; 104, signal connector female head; 106, power adapter board; 1062, base board; 1064, power connector female head; 1066, power output contact; 1068, first bus bar; 302, screw hole. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] In order to facilitate understanding of the present application, the present application will be described more fully below with reference to the relevant drawings. Embodiments of the present application are provided in the drawings. However, the present application can be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. On the contrary, the purpose of providing these embodiments is to make the disclosure of the present application more thorough and comprehensive.

[0032] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. The terms used herein in the specification of this application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit this application.

[0033] It is understood that the terms "first", "second", etc. used in this application may be used herein to describe various elements, but these elements are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish a first element from another element. For example, without departing from the scope of this application, a first bus bar may be referred to as a second bus bar, and similarly, a second bus bar may be referred to as a first bus bar. Both the first bus bar and the second bus bar are bus bars, but they are not the same bus bar.

[0034] It can be understood that the “connection” in the following embodiments should be understood as “electrical connection”, “communication connection”, etc. if the connected circuits, modules, units, etc. have electrical signals or data transmission between each other.

[0035] When used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "said / the" may also include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the terms "include / comprise" or "have" etc. specify the presence of stated features, wholes, steps, operations, components, parts or combinations thereof, but do not exclude the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other features, wholes, steps, operations, components, parts or combinations thereof.

[0036] As pointed out in the background art, when business scenarios change, it is necessary to use a larger rack-mounted server. And a rack-mounted server motherboard suitable for the changed business scenario, such as developing a power adapter board based on the original rack-mounted server motherboard. However, the development of the power adapter board is quite difficult.

[0037] In the face of this difficulty, technicians in traditional technologies often choose to evade it and instead choose to develop a new rack-mounted server motherboard to adapt to the changed business scenarios. However, when developing a new rack-mounted server motherboard, the development cycle is long and consumes huge manpower and material resources.

[0038] In this regard, the applicant has found that due to the change of business scenarios to higher density computing requirements or non-standard applications, the changed business scenarios have higher power consumption requirements. However, due to the size structure of the rack-mounted server, the size structure of the power adapter board is also limited.

[0039] For example, the original rack-mount server is a 2U rack-mount server, and the rack-mount server after the business scenario changes is a 4U rack-mount server. Figure 1 As shown, 100 is a 4U rack-mounted server chassis, 102 is a 2U rack-mounted server motherboard, 104 is a female signal connector disposed on the 2U rack-mounted server motherboard 102, and 106 is a power adapter board.

[0040] It is not difficult to see that the power adapter board 106 is limited by the size structure of the 4U rack-mounted server chassis 100. Compared with the 2U rack-mounted server motherboard 102, its size is smaller, and the current carrying capacity is affected by the cross-sectional area of ​​the conductor, that is, the larger the cross-sectional area, the stronger the current carrying capacity, and the smaller the cross-sectional area, the weaker the current carrying capacity. The smaller size makes it difficult for the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board 106 to meet the power consumption requirements of the business scenarios corresponding to the 4U rack-mounted server.

[0041] In order to solve the problem of insufficient flow capacity, in an exemplary embodiment, as Figure 2 As shown, the power adapter board 106 includes a substrate 1062, a power connector female head 1064 disposed on the top surface of the substrate, a power output contact 1066 disposed on the top surface of the substrate, and at least two first bus bars 1068 with opposite polarities disposed on the top surface of the substrate. The first bus bars 1068 can improve the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board, so that the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board can meet the power consumption requirements. This shortens the development cycle and reduces the consumption of manpower and material resources.

[0042] In addition, the power adapter board meets the power consumption requirements of the entire system (including the rack server motherboard (including the original rack server motherboard and the power adapter board) and other hardware (such as storage devices, CPU, GPU, etc.)) after the business scenario changes without changing the shape of the original rack server motherboard.

[0043] In addition, the layout of the power adapter board has a certain degree of scalability, and can be expanded with external hardware according to specific usage scenarios, which has strong flexibility.

[0044] The power adapter board 106 includes a substrate 1062, a power connector female head 1064 disposed on the top surface of the substrate, a power output contact 1066 disposed on the top surface of the substrate, and at least two first bus bars 1068 with opposite polarities disposed on the top surface of the substrate.

[0045] The power connector female head 1064 is used to connect to a power supply unit (PSU).

[0046] Among them, the power connector female head 1064 and the power connector male head of the power supply unit are plugged together to form a power connector unit, which is used to realize the electrical connection between the power adapter board and the power supply unit.

[0047] The embodiment does not limit the number of the power connector female heads 1064. For example, if there are four power supply units, then there are also four power connector female heads 1064, so that a "2+2" or "3+1" redundancy design can be implemented to ensure the stability of the entire system.

[0048] The power connector unit includes but is not limited to a CRPS (Compact Redundant Power Supply) connector unit and an EPS power connector unit (Entry-level Power Supply). When selecting a power connector, you can choose one based on the power consumption requirements of the system. It is understood that the selection of the power supply unit needs to be consistent with the selection of the power connector unit. For example, if the power supply unit is 3Kw, then the power connector unit is also 3Kw.

[0049] It should be noted that, in order to shorten the power supply path, preferably, the power connector male head of the power supply unit is first plugged into the power connector female head 1064 on the right side.

[0050] The end of the first bus bar 1068 is electrically connected to the power connector female head 1064 , and the tail of the first bus bar 1068 is electrically connected to the power output contact 1066 , so as to form a passage between the power connector female head 1064 and the power output contact 1066 .

[0051] The number of the first bus bars 1068 can be set as required and the available space of the power adapter board needs to be considered.

[0052] The current carrying capacity of the first bus bar 1068 can be designed according to the power consumption requirements of the system, and a certain redundancy needs to be designed to maintain the stability of the system. For example, when the system reaches the peak power consumption, the current is 380A, and the first bus bar 1068 with a current carrying capacity of 400A can be designed.

[0053] Among them, the power output contacts 1066 are arranged in pairs, one of which is grounded and the other is connected to the power supply, which can be designed as a "1+1" redundancy.

[0054] Exemplarily, the current output by the power supply unit flows from the power connector female 1064 into the power adapter board, flows out from the power output contact 1066 through the positive first bus bar 1068 and flows back to the power adapter board, and then flows back from the power connector female 1064 to the power supply unit through the negative first bus bar 1068, forming a closed loop.

[0055] In addition, other power connector female heads 1064 may be provided on the power adapter board to power the extended hardware. Other power connector female heads include, but are not limited to, switch board power connectors, LP (Low Profile) card (also known as short card) power connectors, and double-width GPU power connectors. Each other power connector female head may be arranged according to its occupied space and the available space of the power adapter board, and this embodiment does not limit this.

[0056] In one embodiment, if Figure 3 As shown, the power adapter plate also includes at least two screw holes 302 for threaded connection with the air guide cover; the screw hole 302 is arranged on one side of the first bus bar 1068, and in the current flow direction of the passage, the end of the first bus bar 1068 is located on the left side of one screw hole 302, and the tail of the first bus bar 1068 is located on the right side of the other screw hole 302;

[0057] The air guide cover is used to dissipate heat for the power connector female 1064 .

[0058] In this embodiment, the first bus bar 1068 can be a copper bus bar, an aluminum bus bar, etc.

[0059] It can be understood that the power adapter board is a PCB board. Since the PCB board is relatively thin, in order to ensure the connection strength of the threaded connection, the screw hole 302 is generally designed as a through hole. After the through hole penetrates the PCB board, the current carrying capacity of the PCB board will inevitably be weakened because the current cannot flow through the through hole and bypasses, that is, the area where the screw hole 302 is located is open circuit.

[0060] Therefore, in this embodiment, a bridging method is adopted, that is, the first bus bar 1068 spans across two screw holes 302, thereby connecting the left side of one screw hole 302 with the right side of the other screw hole 302, avoiding flow through the area where the screw hole 302 is located, and instead allowing flow through the first bus bar 1068, thereby further improving the current flow capacity of the power adapter board.

[0061] In one embodiment, the power adapter board further includes a through hole; the first bus bar 1068 further includes a pin; and the pin passes through the power adapter board through the through hole.

[0062] In this embodiment, in addition to passing current through the copper sheet arranged on the top surface of the power adapter board, the first bus bar 1068 also passes current through at least the copper sheet arranged on the bottom surface of the power adapter board, thereby further improving the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board.

[0063] In one embodiment, the power adapter board further includes a signal connector male head disposed on one side of the substrate 1062 , and the thickness of the power adapter board meets the thickness requirement of the signal connector male head.

[0064] The signal connector includes but is not limited to a Gen-Z connector (a connector that complies with the Gen-Z high-speed interconnection standard), a customized connector, and a connector of other high-speed interconnection standards that are different from the Gen-Z high-speed interconnection standard.

[0065] In this embodiment, the male head of the signal connector is arranged on the upper left of the top surface of the power adapter board, and is plugged into the female head of the signal connector on the original rack-mounted server motherboard to transmit high-speed signals. The thickness of the male head of the signal connector has certain specifications. Taking the signal connector as a Gen-Z connector as an example, the thickness of the male head of the signal connector is 1.57 mm.

[0066] The male head of the signal connector is used to transfer the control signal of the BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) to the original rack-mounted server motherboard.

[0067] In summary, both the size limitation and the thickness limitation undoubtedly bring great difficulties to the PCB design of the power adapter board. The above embodiments can solve this problem, thereby providing a certain reference value for the design of small-size and high-power-density thin boards.

[0068] In one embodiment, the substrate 1062 includes multiple circuit board layers stacked on top of each other; the circuit board layers include two signal layers, a top surface, a bottom surface, and multiple power / ground layers.

[0069] Among them, the signal layer is used to transmit signals, the power / ground layer is used to transmit current, the top and bottom surfaces belong to the outer layer, and the signal layer and the power / ground layer belong to the inner layer. Among them, the power / ground layer is the power layer or the ground layer. In addition, in order to avoid electrical factors interfering with the signal layer, the power layer and the signal layer need to be separated.

[0070] For example, the more power / ground layers there are, the better the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board, but due to thickness limitations, there is also an upper limit to the number of layers. For example, if the circuit board layer includes 12 layers, in addition to two signal layers, the top surface, and the bottom surface, it can include 8 power / ground layers.

[0071] In one embodiment, a plurality of copper sheets are also laid on the top surface and the bottom surface of the substrate 1062. That is, the cross-sectional area of ​​the conductor is increased by the copper sheets, thereby further improving the current carrying capacity of the power adapter board.

[0072] In one embodiment, the power output contact 1066 includes but is not limited to a crimp contact and a bright copper surface.

[0073] Wherein, the power output contact 1066 is used to be electrically connected to the second bus bar;

[0074] The second bus bar is used to transfer the current input by the power supply unit to the original rack-mounted server motherboard; the power adapter board is used to enhance the hardware expansion capability of the original rack-mounted server motherboard.

[0075] In one embodiment, the power adapter board also includes an auxiliary signal connector disposed on the top surface of the substrate 1062 for transmitting signals between the power supply unit and the original rack-mounted server motherboard; the power adapter board is used to enhance the hardware expansion capability of the original rack-mounted server motherboard.

[0076] Among them, the auxiliary signal connector includes but is not limited to AUX (Auxiliary, auxiliary interface) connector and customized connector.

[0077] Exemplarily, the signal transmitted by the power supply unit to the original rack-mounted server motherboard is a PG (Power Good) signal, which is used to indicate that the power supply unit has stabilized and is ready to supply power to the motherboard. The signal transmitted by the original rack-mounted server motherboard to the power supply unit is a PM (Power Management) signal, which is used to control and manage the power status of the system, such as standby, sleep, wake-up, etc.

[0078] It can be understood that the above-mentioned power adapter board can also adopt other forms, and is not limited to the forms mentioned in the above embodiments, as long as it can achieve the function of improving the current carrying capacity.

[0079] Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present application further provides a rack-mounted server motherboard including the above-mentioned power adapter board. The implementation solution provided by the rack-mounted server motherboard to solve the problem is similar to the implementation solution recorded in the above-mentioned power adapter board, so the specific limitations in this embodiment can refer to the limitations on the power adapter board above, and will not be repeated here.

[0080] Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present application also provides a rack server including a rack server motherboard. The implementation solution provided by the rack server to solve the problem is similar to the implementation solution recorded in the above-mentioned original rack server motherboard, so the specific limitations in this embodiment can refer to the above-mentioned limitations on the rack server motherboard, which will not be repeated here.

[0081] In the description of this specification, the description with reference to the terms "an embodiment", "another embodiment", etc. means that the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present application. In this specification, the schematic description of the above terms does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example.

[0082] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0083] The above-described embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present application, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the present application. It should be pointed out that, for a person of ordinary skill in the art, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the attached claims.

Claims

1. A power adapter board, characterized in that: include: substrate; A power connector female head disposed on the top surface of the substrate, used for connecting to a power supply unit; A power output contact disposed on the top surface of the substrate; At least two first bus bars with opposite polarities are arranged on the top surface of the substrate, the ends of the first bus bars are electrically connected to the female head of the power connector, and the tails of the first bus bars are electrically connected to the power output contacts, so as to form a passage between the female head of the power connector and the power output contacts.

2. The power adapter board according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes at least two screw holes for threaded connection with the air guide cover; the screw holes are arranged on one side of the first bus bar; In the current flow direction of the passage, the end of the first bus bar is located on the left side of one screw hole, and the tail of the first bus bar is located on the right side of another screw hole; Wherein, the air guide cover is used to dissipate heat for the female head of the power connector.

3. The power adapter board according to claim 1, characterized in that: Also includes a through hole; the first bus bar also includes a pin; The pin passes through the power adapter board through the through hole.

4. The power adapter board according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a signal connector male head arranged on one side of the substrate, and the thickness of the power adapter board meets the thickness requirement of the signal connector male head.

5. The power adapter board according to claim 1, characterized in that: The substrate includes multiple circuit board layers stacked on each other; the circuit board layers include two signal layers, a top surface, a bottom surface and multiple power supply / ground layers.

6. The power adapter board according to claim 5, characterized in that: The top surface and the bottom surface of the substrate are also paved with a plurality of copper sheets.

7. The power adapter board according to claim 1, characterized in that: The power output contact is a bright copper surface, which is used to be electrically connected to the second bus bar; The second bus bar is used to transfer the current input by the power supply unit to the original rack-mounted server mainboard; and the power adapter board is used to enhance the hardware expansion capability of the original rack-mounted server mainboard.

8. The power adapter board according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes an auxiliary signal connector arranged on the top surface of the substrate, which is used to transmit signals between the power supply unit and the original rack-mounted server motherboard; the power adapter board is used to enhance the hardware expansion capability of the original rack-mounted server motherboard.

9. A rack-mounted server motherboard, characterized in that: It comprises a power adapter plate as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A rack-mounted server, characterized in that: It comprises the rack-mounted server mainboard as claimed in claim 9.

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