CAREER: Design Methodologies for Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuits

职业：三维集成电路设计方法学PI：W.Rhett Davis，Inst：North Carolina State University，Raleigh NC 27695-7911 Proposal no：0643700ABSTRACT：40多年来，半导体行业成功地缩小了集成电路上的晶体管，使我们的尺寸达到数十纳米，市场每年都期待着新的、速度更快的芯片。尽管缩小的量子力学极限尚未达到，但制造设备的成本正变得令人望而却步，行业专家正在努力寻找证明这一成本合理的方法。一种很有希望的方法是垂直堆叠芯片，从而满足市场的需求，并重新利用现有设备来销售更多芯片。这种堆叠的过程，通常被称为三维集成电路(3D IC)，已经在原型电路中被证明成功地增加了芯片上的晶体管数量，但它还没有被证明在速度上有显著的提高。从理论上讲，根据应用的不同，3D IC可以将电路的速度提高两到五倍。这项工作的目标是通过实验发现并记录设计技术，这些技术将通过三种方式实现3D IC的速度改进：改进的存储器设计，改进的热流分析，以及搜索特别适合3D IC的应用。除了科学发现，该项目还寻求通过开发最新集成电路技术的免费设计工具包来改善工程教育。自1998年以来开发的所有设计套件都有严格的知识产权控制，限制了教育工作者使用和扩展它们的能力。这个名为免费PDK项目的子项目将建立在最新、最成功的免费设计工具包的基础上，通过彻底的文献搜索和与业界的合作，为教育和小企业提供亟需的推动。最后，与当地社区中心和国家教育基金会的外展伙伴关系将促进弱势学生对低成本电子产品的兴趣。每年夏天，将开发一项全国性的研讨会课程，以制造水晶收音机和无线控制机器人，并在40名初中生和高中生中进行测试。

CAREER: Design Methodologies for Three-Dimensional Integrated CircuitsPI: W. Rhett Davis, INST: North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC 27695-7911Proposal no: 0643700ABSTRACT:The semiconductor industry has succeeded in shrinking transistors on integrated circuits for more than 40 years, giving us dimensions now in the tens of nanometers and a market that expects new, faster chips every year. Although quantum-mechanical limits of shrinking have not yet been reached, the cost of manufacturing equipment is becoming prohibitively large, and industry experts are struggling to find ways to justify this cost. One promising approach is to stack chips vertically, thereby meeting the market's demands and re-using existing equipment to sell more chips. This process of stacking, often called three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs), has been shown in prototype circuits to successfully increase the number of transistors on a chip, but it has not yet been shown to give significant improvements in speed. Theoretically, 3D ICs can increase the speed of circuits by a factor of two to five, depending on the application. The goal of this work is to experimentally discover and document the design techniques that will enable these speed improvements for 3D ICs in three ways: improved memory design, improved analysis of heat flow, and a search for applications that are especially well suited for 3D ICs. In addition to scientific discoveries, this project seeks to improve engineering education by developing a free design-kit for the latest integrated-circuit technology. All design-kits developed since 1998 have strict intellectual property controls, limiting educators' ability to use and expand them. This sub-project, called the FreePDK project, will build on the latest, most successful free design-kit with a thorough literature search and collaboration with industry, providing a much-needed boost to education and small businesses.Finally, an outreach partnership with a local community center and national education foundation will promote interest in low-cost electronics among disadvantaged students. A nationally distributed workshop curriculum to build crystal radios and a wirelessly-controlled robot will be developed tested each summer with forty middle-school and high-school students.