Impact of three-dimensional architectures on interconnects in gigascale integration

  • Authors:
  • James W. Joyner;Raguraman Venkatesan;Payman Zarkesh-Ha;Jeffrey A. Davis;James D. Meindl

  • Affiliations:
  • Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems - System Level Design
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

An interconnect distribution model for homogeneous, three-dimensional (3-D) architectures with variable separation of strata is presented. Three-dimensional architectures offer an opportunity to reduce the length of the longest interconnects. The separation of strata has little impact on the length of interconnects but a large impact on the number of interstratal interconnects. Using a multilevel interconnect methodology for an ITRS 2005 100 nm ASIC, a two-strata architecture offers a 3.9 x increase in wire-limited clock frequency, an 84% decrease in wire-limited area or a 25% decrease in the number of metal levels required. In practice, however, such fabrication advances as improved alignment tolerances in wafer-bonding techniques are needed to gain key advantages stemming from 3-D architectures for homogenous gigascale intergrated circuits.