DESIGN METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS FOR VERTICALLY INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

Abstract

Vertical integration technologies, such as three-dimensional integration and interposers, are technologies that support high integration densities while offering shorter interconnect lengths as compared to planar integration and other packaging technologies. To exploit these advantages, however, several challenges lay across the designing, manufacturing and testing stages of integrated systems. Considering the high complexity of modern microelectronic devices and the diverse features of vertical integration technologies, this thesis sheds light on the circuit design process. New methodologies and tools are offered in order to assess and improve traditional objectives in circuit design, such as performance, power, and area for vertically integrated circuits. Interconnects on different interposer materials are investigated, demonstrating the several trade-offs between power, performance, area, and crosstalk. A backend design flow is proposed to capture the performance and power gains from the introduction of the third dimension. Emphasis is also placed on the power consumption of modern circuits due to the immense growth of battery-operated devices in the last fifteen years. Therefore, the effect of scaling the operating voltage in three-dimensional circuits is investigated as it is one of the most efficient techniques for reducing power while considering the performance of the circuit. Furthermore, a solution to eliminate timing penalties from the usage of voltage scaling technique at finer circuits granularities is also presented in this thesis.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	James Garside (Supervisor) & Vasileios Pavlidis (Supervisor)