Patent 7538440 was granted and assigned to Intel on May, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A printed circuit board having at least one conductive region covered in solder paste has preformed solder elements placed on the solder paste in the conductive region. A component package is placed onto the printed circuit board over the conductive region and the solder is reflowed, forming a wide solder interconnection between the component and the conductive region of the printed circuit board.