The Thermal And Power Realities Of The AI Era


The rapid growth of AI has created a surge in the global energy consumption at a rate never seen before. Today, data centers account for approximately 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity globally. To put this into perspective, the annual energy consumption of the United Kingdom in 2023 measured at 309 TWh. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects data centers’ energy consumption wil... » read more

Automated Multiphysics For Successful 3D-IC Design


By John Ferguson and Sheltha Nolke For design teams adopting 3D-IC architectures, the relentless pursuit of performance and reliability brings a familiar, yet increasingly complex, set of challenges: how do we manage power, dissipate heat and navigate the intricate dance of physics within these stacked architectures? While 3D-ICs offer significant advantages in size, performance, power effic... » read more

Power, Not Area: Why Edge GPU Design Is Entering A New Era


For decades, semiconductor progress followed a familiar playbook: shrink the node, pack in more logic, raise the clock, and performance would follow. That model held remarkably well, and possibly much longer than it should have. As the industry moves below 2nm, GPU design is running into a hard physical reality. The limiting factor is no longer how much logic we can fit on a die. It’s how ... » read more

Research Bits: Feb. 24


Growing patterned diamond Researchers from Rice University developed a bottom-up microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition method for growing patterned diamond surfaces that could help decrease operating temperatures in electronics by 23 degrees Celsius. The team used two techniques for controlling seed crystal placement. Photolithography was used for small, detailed patterns. To scale up ... » read more

Redefining Backside Metallization: Low‑Temperature Solutions For HDFO And S‑SWIFT Designs


As chip performance and integration continue to advance, thermal dissipation control has become increasingly critical not only at the wafer fabrication level but also in the packaging industry. For artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) applications, the industry is gradually shifting toward 2.5D integration. In response to the growing demand, High-Density Fan-Out (HD... » read more

Research Bits: Feb. 9


Computing with heat Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed silicon structures that can perform calculations in an electronic device using excess heat instead of electricity. The device was created using a software system that automatically designs a material that can conduct heat in a specific manner. The inverse design technique allowed the researchers to... » read more

Six 3D-IC Design Trends That Secure The AI Era


By Pratyush Kamal and Todd Burkholder Greater functionality, performance, and speed are in great demand in pervasive computing, RF, and automotive electronic systems, as well as most everything else. Complexity continues to skyrocket, leading many to say we are officially in the post-Moore’s Law world. In his seminal 1965 paper, “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits,�... » read more

Unlocking Next-Gen Thermal Management: Why Indium-Based Metal TIMs Are Game-Changers


As electronic devices become more powerful and compact, thermal management has become one of the most critical challenges in advanced electronic packaging. High-performance processors used in AI computing, data centers, and 5G/6G infrastructure generate significant heat, and failure to dissipate effectively can lead to reduced performance, reliability issues, and even catastrophic component fai... » read more

Thermal Management In 3D-IC: Modeling Hotspots, Materials, & Cooling Strategies


As three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D-IC) technology becomes the architectural backbone of AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced edge systems, thermal management has shifted from a downstream constraint to a fundamental design driver. The dense vertical integration that enables unprecedented performance also concentrates heat at levels that traditional two-dimensional design ... » read more

Research Bits: Dec. 2


Ionothermoelectric cooling Researchers from the University of Osaka, University of Tokyo, and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology proposed an ionothermoelectric cooling strategy for chips that enhances cooling by driving the flow of ions through nanoscale channels. “We fabricated a nanosized pore in a semiconductor membrane and surrounded the nanopore ... » read more

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