Road to High-Performance 3D ICs: Performance Optimization Methodologies for Monolithic 3D ICs

As we approach the limits of 2D device scaling, monolithic 3D IC (M3D) has emerged as a potential solution offering performance and power benefits. Although various studies have been done to increase power savings of M3D designs, efforts to improve their performance are rarely made. In this paper, we, for the first time, perform in-depth analysis of the factors that affect the performance of M3D, and present methodologies to improve the performance. Our methodologies outperform the state-of-the-art M3D design flow by offering 15.6% performance improvement and 16.2% energy-delay product (EDP) benefit over 2D designs.