5 research outputs found
Test-Cost Modeling and Optimal Test-Flow Selection of 3D-Stacked ICs
Three-dimensional (3D) integration is an attractive technology platform for next-generation ICs. Despite the benefits offered by 3D integration, test cost remains a major concern, and analysis and tools are needed to understand test flows and minimize test cost.We propose a generic cost model to account for various test costs involved in 3D integration and present a formal representation of the solution space to minimize the overall cost. We present an algorithm based on A*—a best-first search technique—to obtain an optimal solution. An approximation algorithm with provable bounds on optimality is proposed to further reduce the search space. In contrast to prior work, which is based on explicit enumeration of test flows, we adopt a formal optimization approach, which allows us to select an effective test flow by systematically exploring an exponentially large number of candidate test flows. Experimental results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed method. Adopting a formal approach to solving the cost-minimization problem provides useful insights that cannot be derived via selective enumeration
of a smaller number of candidate test flows.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant no. CCF-1017391, the Semiconductor Research Corporation under contract no. 2118, a grant from Intel Corporation, and a gift from Cisco Systems through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Cost-Effective Design of Mesh-of-Tree Interconnect for Multi-Core Clusters with 3-D Stacked L2 Scratchpad Memory
3-D integrated circuits (3-D ICs) offer a promising solution to overcome the scaling limitations of 2-D ICs. However, using too many through-silicon-vias (TSVs) pose a negative impact on 3-D ICs due to the large overhead of TSV (e.g., large footprint and low yield). In this paper, we propose a new TSV sharing method for a circuit-switched 3-D mesh-of-tree (MoT) interconnect, which supports high-throughput and low-latency communication between processing cores and 3-D stacked multibanked L2 scratchpad memory. The proposed method supports traffic balancing and TSV-failure tolerant routing. The proposed method advocates a modular design strategy to allow stacking multiple identical memory dies without the need for different masks for dies at different levels in the memory stack. We also investigate various parameters of 3-D memory stacking (e.g., fabrication technology, TSV bonding technique, number of memory tiers, and TSV sharing scheme) that affect interconnect latency, system performance, and fabrication cost. Compared to conventional MoT interconnect that is straightforwardly adapted to 3-D integration, the proposed method yields up to (times 2.11) and (times 1.11) improvements in terms of cost efficiency (i.e., performance/cost) for microbump TSV bonding and direct Cu–Cu TSV bonding techniques, respectively
Integrating simultaneous bi-direction signalling in the test fabric of 3D stacked integrated circuits.
Jennions, Ian K. - Associate SupervisorThe world has seen significant advancements in electronic devices’ capabilities,
most notably the ability to embed ultra-large-scale functionalities in lightweight,
area and power-efficient devices. There has been an enormous push towards
quality and reliability in consumer electronics that have become an indispensable
part of human life. Consequently, the tests conducted on these devices at the
final stages before these are shipped out to the customers have a very high
significance in the research community. However, researchers have always
struggled to find a balance between the test time (hence the test cost) and the
test overheads; unfortunately, these two are inversely proportional.
On the other hand, the ever-increasing demand for more powerful and compact
devices is now facing a new challenge. Historically, with the advancements in
manufacturing technology, electronic devices witnessed miniaturizing at an
exponential pace, as predicted by Moore’s law. However, further geometric or
effective 2D scaling seems complicated due to performance and power concerns
with smaller technology nodes. One promising way forward is by forming 3D
Stacked Integrated Circuits (SICs), in which the individual dies are stacked
vertically and interconnected using Through Silicon Vias (TSVs) before being
packaged as a single chip. This allows more functionality to be embedded with a
reduced footprint and addresses another critical problem being observed in 2D
designs: increasingly long interconnects and latency issues. However, as more
and more functionality is embedded into a small area, it becomes increasingly
challenging to access the internal states (to observe or control) after the device
is fabricated, which is essential for testing. This access is restricted by the limited
number of Chip Terminals (IC pins and the vertical Through Silicon Vias) that a
chip could be fitted with, the power consumption concerns, and the chip area
overheads that could be allocated for testing.
This research investigates Simultaneous Bi-Directional Signaling (SBS) for use
in Test Access Mechanism (TAM) designs in 3D SICs. SBS enables chip
terminals to simultaneously send and receive test vectors on a single Chip
Terminal (CT), effectively doubling the per-pin efficiency, which could be
translated into additional test channels for test time reduction or Chip Terminal
reduction for resource efficiency. The research shows that SBS-based test
access methods have significant potential in reducing test times and/or test
resources compared to traditional approaches, thereby opening up new avenues
towards cost-effectiveness and reliability of future electronics.PhD in Manufacturin