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 froThree-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 of3-D design tools and heat 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, propose to: 1) Developmethodologies to analyze and assess coupled electrical and thermal performance of 3-D ICs, including calculation of realistic full-chip thermal distributions and determining from them signal delay/distortion. 2) Develop a novel performance-driven andthermal-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, and power control and optimization. 3) Interface the new3-D design tools with commercial EDA environments in order to validate and demonstrate the methodology.