Design method for asymmetric 3D interconnect architectures with high level models

Abstract

New 3D production methods enable heterogeneous integration of dies manufactured in different technology nodes. Asymmetric 3D interconnect architectures (A-3D-IAs) are the communication infrastructure targeting these heterogeneous 3D system on chips (3D SoCs), for which design methodologies and design tools are still missing. Here, a design method is proposed following an incremental approach enabled by high level models. Therefore, we present the first simulator and design framework covering the diverse requirements of A-3D-IAs. This includes an abstract model to estimate the application specific energy consumption of 2D metal wires and 3D through silicon vias (TSVs) in an A-3D-IA. It is validated by circuit simulations in combination with an electromagnetic field solver which is used for the extraction of the TSV array equivalent circuit. The model lays on a high abstraction level for fast simulations. Nonetheless, for real data stream scenarios it still shows a small maximum error of less than 8%. Additionally, a mathematical description is presented which enables a fast evaluation of low power coding schemes for A-3D-IA on a high level of abstraction.