Cooling three-dimensional integrated circuits using power delivery networks

Our comprehensive analysis, over a range of 3D integration methods and application power density characteristics, quantifies major benefits of PDNs on the temperature distribution of 3D ICs. For example, PDNs can reduce the maximum steady-state temperature by over 35 °C for a 2-layer monolithic 3D IC. Our OpenSPARC T2 case study also demonstrates that the cooling benefits of PDNs are essential to achieve monolithic 3D integration. Our analysis framework can be adopted for exploring technology-circuit-application interactions for a wide variety of 3D technologies, cooling options, PDN designs, or even software-level task scheduling approaches. Of course, it is essential to experimentally validate the simulation results presented in this paper.