Powering AI At Scale: Why 3D-ICs Demand A New Approach To Power Integrity


By Muhammad Hassan and Sudarshan Deo The semiconductor industry is undergoing a fundamental transition. Performance scaling is no longer driven primarily by transistor density, but by advanced packaging—2.5D, 3D-ICs, chiplets, and heterogeneous integration. Fig. 1: 3D-IC and 2.5D structure. These architectures are essential to meeting the extreme performance and bandwidth demands... » read more

TSV Complexity Leads To Manufacturing Bottleneck


Key Takeaways: Through-silicon vias are the biggest enabler of 3D chip stacking and chip-to-PCB connections through silicon interposers. The AI boom is causing HBM and advanced assembly shortages, straining the supply chain. Optimization around etch, fill and reveal help reduce TSV cost. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) provide essential interconnects between DRAM dies inside hig... » read more

An Explosion In Interconnect Complexity


For decades, electronics offered two levels of routing structure to manage signals that originate or terminate in an integrated circuit. Recently, that number has risen to five, and while it adds far more flexibility for structuring electronic equipment, it also brings greater complexity and ratchets up the number of design decisions needed to complete a project. This transition has been evo... » read more

Structural Integrity Assessment of IC Packaging Using Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (Arizona State Univ., Fraunhofer IMWS)


A new technical paper titled "Recent Progress in Structural Integrity Evaluation of Microelectronic Packaging Using Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM): A Review" was published by researchers at Arizona State University and Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS. Abstract "Microelectronic packaging is crucial for protecting, powering, and interconnecting semi... » read more

What Is 3D-IC Technology? Fundamentals, Architecture, And Design Concepts


As process nodes continue to advance into the sub-micron era, the limitations of traditional scaling are becoming increasingly evident. Larger monolithic chips are facing challenges such as higher power density, routing congestion, and reduced yield. Three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D-IC) technology represents a breakthrough approach by stacking multiple dies vertically. This design red... » read more

Monolithic Integration of Air-Clad Optical Through-Silicon Waveguides in Silicon (TH Wildau et al.)


A new technical paper titled "Monolithically Integrated Optical Through-Silicon Waveguides for 3D Chip-to-Chip Photonic Interconnects" was published by researchers at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau, TU of Applied Sciences Mittelhessen, TU Ilmenau, Brandenburg University of Technology and Fraunhofer IPMS. Abstract "The scaling limitations of electrical interconnects are ... » read more

On-Die And In-Package Interconnects: eBook


We live in the Information Age, but if information cannot get to where it's intended to go, it does no good. And the way information gets from here to there is through interconnects. This report focuses on different interconnect structures, such as lines, vias, buses, and networks-on-chip, and how they’re constructed. As always, we consider the design, test, reliability, and security impli... » read more

The Other Side Of The Wafer: Transistor Channel Stress In Backside Power Delivery Networks


As transistor scaling has moved to the angstrom era (18A, 14A, etc.), the issues of interconnect resistance (IR), IR drop, and power loss are becoming more severe. Traditionally, signal lines and power lines are fabricated on the same side of the wafer as the active device. But fabricating everything on one side of the wafer can create a shortage of space and resources at the interconnect la... » read more

Low-Cost TSV Repair Architecture Specialized for Highly Clustered TSV Faults Within HBM


A new technical paper titled "Low Cost TSV Repair Architecture Using Switch-Based Matrix for Highly Clustered Faults" was published by researchers at Yonsei University. Abstract "Through-silicon via (TSV), responsible for inter-layer communication in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), plays a critical role in HBM operation. Therefore, faults occur in TSVs can critically impact the entire chips. H... » read more

3D Integration And Test Results From TSV-Processed Chips (CERN et al.)


A new technical paper titled "3D integration of pixel readout chips using Through-Silicon-Vias" was published by researchers at CERN, IZM Fraunhofer and University of Geneva. Abstract "Particle tracking and imaging detectors are becoming increasingly complex, driven by demands for densely integrated functionality and maximal sensitive area. These challenging requirements can be met using 3D... » read more

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