• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.276-279
• /
• 2015

This paper presents two 3-stage D-band stacked amplifiers developed in a $0.13-{\mu}m$ SiGe BiCMOS technology, employed to compare the conventional cascode topology and the common-base (CB)/CB stacked topology. AMP1 employs two cascode stages followed by a CB/CB stacked stage, while AMP2 is composed of three CB/CB stacked stages. AMP1 showed a 17.1 dB peak gain at 143.8 GHz and a saturation output power of -4.2 dBm, while AMP2 showed a 20.4 dB peak gain at 150.6 GHz and a saturation output power of -1.3 dBm. The respective power dissipation was 42.9 mW and 59.4 mW for the two amplifiers. The results show that CB/CB stacked topology is favored over cascode topology in terms of gain near 140 GHz.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.63-66
• /
• 2014

In this study, we investigated the effects of Cu TSV on the thermal management of 3D stacked IC. Combination of backside point-heating and IR microscopic measurement of the front-side temperature showed evolution of hot spots in thin Si wafers, implying 3D stacked IC is vulnerable to thermal interference between stacked layers. Cu TSV was found to be an effective heat path, resulting in larger high temperature area in TSV wafer than bare Si wafer, and could be used as an efficient thermal via in the thermal management of 3D stacked IC.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.139-149
• /
• 2012

A 3D stacked IC is made by multiple dies (possibly) with heterogeneous process technologies. Therefore, die-to-die variation in 2D chips renders on-package variation (OPV) in a 3D chip. In spite of the different variation effect in 3D chips, generally, 3D die stacking can produce high yield due to the smaller individual die area and the averaging effect of variation on data path. However, 3D clock network can experience unintended huge clock skew due to the different clock propagation routes on multiple stacked dies. In this paper, we analyze the on-package variation effect on 3D clock networks and show the necessity of a post silicon management method such as body biasing technique for the OPV induced 3D clock skew control in 3D stacked IC designs. Then, we present a parametric yield improvement method to mitigate the OPV induced 3D clock skew.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.347-351
• /
• 2007

Vertical interconnect technology called 3D stacking has been a major focus of the next generation of IC industries. 3D stacked devices in the vertical dimension give several important advantages over conventional two-dimensional scaling. The most eminent advantage is its performance improvement. Vertical device stacking enhances a performance such as inter-die bandwidth improvements, RC delay mitigation and geometrical routing and placement advantages. At present memory stacking options are of great interest to many industries and research institutes. However, these options are more focused on a form factor reduction rather than the high performance improvements. In order to improve a stacked device performance significantly vertical interconnect technology with wafer level stacking needs to be much more progressed with reduction in inter-wafer pitch and increases in the number of stacked layers. Even though 3D wafer level stacking technology offers many opportunities both in the short term and long term, the full performance benefits of 3D wafer level stacking require technological developments beyond simply the wafer stacking technology itself.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.566-571
• /
• 2014

Channel-stacked 3D NAND flash memory is very promising candidate for the next-generation NAND flash memory. However, there is an inherent issue on cell size variation between stacked channels due to the declined etch slope. In this paper, the effect of the cell variation on the incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) characteristics is studied with 3D TCAD simulation. The ISPP slope degradation of elliptical channel is investigated. To solve that problem, a new programming method is proposed, and we can alleviate the $V_T$ variation among cells and reduce the total programming time.

• Journal of IKEEE
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.279-284
• /
• 2016

This paper presents a two stage L-band power amplifier realized with a $0.32{\mu}m$ Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) CMOS technology. To overcome a low breakdown voltage limit of MOSFET, stacked-FET structures are employed, where three transistors in the first stage amplifier and four transistors in the second stage amplifier are connected in series so that their output voltage swings are added in phase. The stacked-FET structures enable the proposed amplifier to achieve a 21.5 dB small-signal gain and 15.7 dBm output 1-dB compression power at 1.9 GHz with a 122 mA DC current from a 4 V supply. The amplifier delivers a 19.7 dBm. This paper presents a two stage L-band power amplifier realized with a $0.32{\mu}m$ Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) CMOS technology. To overcome a low breakdown voltage limit of MOSFET, stacked-FET structures are employed, where three transistors in the first stage amplifier and four transistors in the second stage amplifier are connected in series so that their output voltage swings are added in phase. The stacked-FET structures enable the proposed amplifier to achieve a 21.5 dB small-signal gain and 15.7 dBm output 1-dB compression power at 1.9 GHz with a 122 mA DC current from a 4 V supply. The amplifier delivers a 19.7 dBm saturated output power with a 16 % maximum Power Added Efficiency (PAE). A bond wire fine tuning technology enables the amplifier a 23.67 dBm saturated output power with a 20.4 % maximum PAE. The die area is $1.9mm{\times}0.6mm$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.5-9
• /
• 2015

Thermal management becomes serious in 3D stacked IC because of higher heat flux, increased power generation, extreme hot spot, etc. In this paper, we reviewed the recent developments of thermal management for 3D stacked IC which is a promising candidate to keep Moore's law continue. According to experimental and numerical simulation results, Cu TSV affected heat dissipation in a thin chip due to its high thermal conductivity and could be used as an efficient heat dissipation path. Other parameters like bumps, gap filling material also had effects on heat transfer between stacked ICs. Thermal aware circuit design was briefly discussed as well.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.40-44
• /
• 2016

The device coupling between the stacked top/bottom field-effect transistors (FETs) in two types of monolithic 3D inverter (M3INV) with/without a metal layer in the bottom tier is investigated, and then the regime of the thickness T_ILD and dielectric constant ε_r of the inter-layer distance (ILD), the doping concentration N_d (N_a), and length L_g of the channel, and the side-wall length L_SW where the stacked FETs are coupled are studied. When N_d (N_a) < 10¹⁶ cm^-3 and L_SW < 20 nm, the threshold voltage shift of the top FET varies almost constantly by the gate voltage of the bottom FET, but when N_d (N_a) > 10¹⁶ cm^-3 or L_SW > 20 nm, the shift decreases and increases, respectively. M3INVs with T_ILD ≥ 50 nm and ε_r ≤ 3.9 can neglect the interaction between the stacked FETs, but when T_ILD or ε_r do not meet the above conditions, the interaction must be taken into consideration.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.86-90
• /
• 2018

Standards related to express the non-flatness of a wafer are reviewed and discussed, for example, bow, warp, and sori. Novel wafer warpage measurement method is proposed for 3D stacked IC application. The new way measures heat transfer from a heater to a wafer, which is a function of the contact area between these two surfaces and in turn, this contact area depends on the wafer warpage. Measurement options such as heating from room temperature and cooling from high temperature were experimentally examined. The heating method was found to be sensitive to environmental conditions. The cooling technique showed more robust and repeatable results and the further investigation for the optimal cooling condition is underway.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.282-289
• /
• 2011

GHz electromagnetic interference (EMI) characteristics are analyzed for a 3dimensional (3D) stacked chip power distribution network (PDN) with through silicon via (TSV) connections. The EMI problem is mostly raised by P/G (power/ground) noise due to high switching current magnitudes and high PDN impedances. The 3D stacked chip PDN is decomposed into P/G TSVs and vertically stacked capacitive chip PDNs. The TSV inductances combine with the chip PDN capacitances produce resonances and increase the PDN impedance level in the GHz frequency range. These effects depend on stacking configurations and P/G TSV designs and are analyzed using the P/G TSV model and chip PDN model. When a small size chip PDN and a large size chip PDN are stacked, the small one's impedance is more seriously affected by TSV effects and shows higher levels. As a P/G TSV location is moved to a corner of the chip PDNs, larger PDN impedances appear. When P/G TSV numbers are enlarged, the TSV effects push the resonances to a higher frequency range. As a small size chip PDN is located closer to the center of a large size chip PDN, the TSV effects are enhanced.