Advanced Physical Design Tools for 3-Dimensional Integrated Circuits

"Three-dimensional (3-D) integrated circuits (ICs) can significantly improve circuit performance and offer the promise of integrating various technologies (memory, logic, RF, mixed-signal, optoelectronics)within a single block. Lack of 3-D design tools andheat dissipation from vertically stacked multiple layers are the crucial problems in their development. To address these issues, CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC), together with UCLA and Irvine Sensors, proposes to: 1) Develop methodologies to analyze andassess coupled electrical and thermal performance of 3-D ICs, including calculation of realistic full-chip thermal distributions and determining from them signal delay/distortion, both by analytical Elmore delay model, and by 3-D electromagneticsimulations. 2) Develop a novel performance-driven and thermal-driven 3-D IC physical design system, which is capable of automatic 3-D IC placement and routing. It will consider key factors in 3-D IC layout, including thermal, performance, congestion, andpower control and optimization. 3) Interface the new 3-D design tools with commercial EDA environments in order to validate and demonstrate the methodology. In Phase II, we will add model libraries for 3-D circuit components and sub-blocks/circuits basedon coupled thermal/electrical performance characteristics and develop tools for the coupled optimization of parameters such as integration density, cross-talk, interconnect latency, and therma