3D IC technology : 3D IC technology Pouya Dormiani
Christopher Lucas
What is a 3D IC? : What is a 3D IC? “Stacked” 2D (Conventional) ICs Could be Heterogeneous…
Motivation : Motivation Interconnect structures increasingly consume more of the power and delay budgets in modern design
Plausible solution: increase the number of “nearest neighbors” seen by each transistor by using 3D IC design
Smaller wire cross-sections, smaller wire pitch and longer lines to traverse larger chips increase RC delay.
RC delay is increasingly becoming the dominant factor
At 250 nm Cu was introduced alleviate the adverse effect of increasing interconnect delay.
130 nm technology node, substantial interconnect delays will result.
3D Fabrication Technologies : 3D Fabrication Technologies Many options available for realization of 3D circuits
Choice of Fabrication depends on requirements of Circuit System
Performance Characteristics : Performance Characteristics Timing
Energy
With shorter interconnects in 3D ICs, both switching energy and cycle time are expected to be reduced
Timing : Timing In current technologies, timing is interconnect driven.
Reducing interconnect length in designs can dramatically reduce RC delays and increase chip performance
The graph below shows the results of a reduction in wire length due to 3D routing
Discussed more in detail later in the slides
Energy performance : Energy performance Wire length reduction has an impact on the cycle time and the energy dissipation
Energy dissipation decreases with the number of layers used in the design
Following graphs are based on the 3D tool described later in the presentation
Energy performance graphs : Energy performance graphs
Design tools for 3D-IC design : Design tools for 3D-IC design Demand for EDA tools
As the technology matures, designers will want to exploit this design area
Current tool-chains
Mostly academic
We will discuss a tool from MIT
3D Standard Cell tool Design : 3D Standard Cell tool Design 3D Cell Placement
Placement by min-cut partitioning
3D Global Routing
Inter-wafer vias
Circuit layout management
MAGIC
3D Standard Cell Placement : 3D Standard Cell Placement Natural to think of a 3D integrated circuit as being partitioned into device layers or planes
Min cut part-itioning along the 3rd dimension is same as minimizing vias
Total wire length vs. Vias : Total wire length vs. Vias Can trade off increased total wire length for fewer inter-plane vias by varying the point at which the design is partitioned into planes
Plane assignment performed prior to detailed placement
Yields smaller number of vias, but greater overall wire length
Total wire length vs. Vias (Cont) : Total wire length vs. Vias (Cont) Plane assignment not made until detailed placement stage
Yields smaller total wire length but greater number of vias
Intro to Global Routing : Intro to Global Routing Overview
Global Routing involves generating a “loose” route for each net.
Assigns a list of routing regions to a net without actually specifying the geometrical layout of the wires.
Followed by detailed routing
Finds the actual geometrical shape of the net within the assigned routing regions.
Usually either sequential or hierarchical algorithms
Illustration of routing areas : Illustration of routing areas x z y x z y Detailed routing of net when routing areas are known
Hierarchical Global Routing : Hierarchical Global Routing Tool uses a hierarchical global routing algorithm
Based on Integer programming and Steiner trees
Integer programming approach still too slow for size of problem and complexity (NP-hard)
Hierarchical routing methods break down the integer program into pieces small enough to be solved exactly
2D Global Routing : 2D Global Routing A 2D Hierarchical global router works by recursively bisecting the routing substrate.
Wires within a Region are fully contained or terminate at a pin on the region boundry.
At each partitioning step the pins on the side of the routing region is allocated to one of the two subregions.
Wires Connect cells on both sides of the partition line.
These are cut by the partition and for each a pin is inserted into the side of the partition
Once complete, the results can be fed to a detailed router or switch box router (A switchbox is a rectangular area bounded on all sides by blocks)
Illustration of Bisection : Illustration of Bisection
Extending to 3D : Extending to 3D Routing in 3D consists of routing a set of aligned congruent routing regions on adjacent wafers.
Wires can enter from any of the sides of the routing region in addition to its top and bottom
3D router must consider routing on each of the layers in addition to the placement of the inter-waver vias
Basis idea is: You connect a inter-waver via to the port you are trying to connect to, and route the wire to that via on the 2D plane.
All we need now is enough area in the 2D routing space to route to the appropriate via
3D Routing Results : 3D Routing Results Percentage Of 2D Total wire Length
Minimizing for Wire Length:
2 Layers ~ 28%
5 Layers ~ 51 %
Minimizing for via count:
2 Layers ~ 7%
5 Layers ~ 17%
3D-MAGIC : 3D-MAGIC MAGIC is an open source layout editor developed at UC Berkeley
3D-MAGIC is an extension to MAGIC by providing support for Multi-layer IC design
What’s different
New Command :bond
Bonds existing 2D ICs and places inter-layer Vias in the design file
Once Two layers are bonded they are treated as one entity
Concerns in 3D circuit : Concerns in 3D circuit Thermal Issues in 3D-circuits
EMI
Reliability Issues
Thermal Issues in 3D Circuits : Thermal Issues in 3D Circuits Thermal Effects dramatically impact interconnect and device reliability in 2D circuits
Due to reduction in chip size of a 3D implementation, 3D circuits exhibit a sharp increase in power density
Analysis of Thermal problems in 3D is necessary to evaluate thermal robustness of different 3D technology and design options.
Heat Flow in 2D : Heat Flow in 2D Heat generated arises due to switching
In 2D circuits we have only one layer of Si to consider.
Heat Flow in 3D : Heat Flow in 3D With multi-layer circuits , the upper
layers will also generate a significant
fraction of the heat.
Heat increases linearly with level increase
Heat Dissipation : Heat Dissipation All active layers will be insulated from each other by layers of dielectrics
With much lower thermal conductivity than Si
Therefore heat dissipation in 3D circuits can accelerate many failure mechanisms.
Heat Dissipation in Wafer Bonding versus Epitaxial Growth : Heat Dissipation in Wafer Bonding versus Epitaxial Growth Wafer Bonding(b)
2X Area for heat dissipation Epitaxial Growth(a)
Heat Dissipation in Wafer Bonding versus Epitaxial Growth : Heat Dissipation in Wafer Bonding versus Epitaxial Growth Design 1
Equal Chip Area Design 2
Equal metal wire pitch
High epitaxial temperature : High epitaxial temperature Temperatures actually higher for Epitaxial second layers
Since the temperature of the second active layer T2 will
Be higher than T1 since T1 is closer to the substrate
and T2 is stuck between insulators
EMI in 3D ICs : EMI in 3D ICs Interconnect Coupling Capacitance and cross talk
Coupling between the top layer metal of the first active layer and the device on the second active layer devices is expected
EMI : EMI Interconnect Inductance Effects
Shorter wire lengths help reduce the inductance
Presence of second substrate close to global wires might help lower inductance by providing shorter return paths
Reliability Issues? : Reliability Issues? Electro thermal and Thermo-mechanical effects between various active layers can influence electro-migration and chip performance
Die yield issues may arise due to mismatches between die yields of different layers, which affect net yield of 3D chips.
Implications on Circuit Design and Architecture : Implications on Circuit Design and Architecture Buffer Insertion
Layout of Critical Paths
Microprocessor Design
Mixed Signal IC’s
Physical design and Synthesis
Buffer Insertion : Buffer Insertion
Use of buffers in 3D circuits to break up long interconnects
At top layers inverter sizes 450 times min inverter size for the relevant technology
These top layer buffers require large routing area and can reach up to 10,000 for high performance designs in 100nm technology
With 3D technology repeaters can be placed on the second layer and reduce area for the first layer. Buffer Insertion
Layout of Critical Paths and Microprocessor Design : Layout of Critical Paths and Microprocessor Design Once again interconnect delay dominates in 2D design.
Logic blocks on the critical path need to communicate with each other but due to placement and desig constraints are placed far away from each other.
With a second layer of Si these devices can be placed on different layes of Si and thus closer to each other using(VILICs)
In Microprocessor design most critical paths involve on chip caches on the critical path.
Computational modules which access the cache are distributed all over the chip while the cache is in the corner.
Cache can be placed on a second layer and connected to these modules using (VILICs)
Mixed Signal ICs and Physical Design : Mixed Signal ICs and Physical Design Digital signals on chip can couple and interfere with RF signals
With multiple layers RF portions of the system can be separated from their digital counterparts.
Physical Design needs to consider the multiple layers of Silicon available.
Placement and routing algorithms need to be modified
Conclusion : Conclusion 3D IC design is a relief to interconnect driven IC design.
Still many manufacturing and technological difficulties
Needs strong EDA applications for automated design