Monolithic 3D Semiconductor Footprint Scaling Exploration Based on VFET Standard Cell Layout Methodology, Design Flow, and EDA Platform

Continued scaling in accordance with Moore’s law is becoming increasingly difficult. Pitch shrinkage and standard cell height reduction via design technology co-optimization with design rules have sustained this scaling until recently. However, we observe that standard cell device scaling is becoming saturated due to yield and cost. One way to continue device footprint reduction is by expanding in the third dimension via monolithic 3D integration, using for example stacked gate-all-around (GAA) devices, complementary FETs, vertical FETs, and 3D logic. However, using these footprint scaling approaches to increase device density creates new problems. Using vertical gate-all-around FET (VFET) technologies as a specific instance of 3D device scaling, we demonstrate that the key bottleneck to footprint scaling is the
pin density wall
. The footprint of a block is predominantly limited by the pin density as we increase the number of active device layers. While a full-blown paradigm shift on layout methodology, design flow, and electronic design automation (EDA) platform is not available now, we describe in this article three specific baby steps that can alleviate the pin density problem and demonstrate their potential benefits for footprint scaling: (1) allocating standard cell pin sideways and using block-level routing with the local interconnect layers; (2) using the backside of the substrate for the power distribution network; and (3) using the generation of more complex standard cells. We show via several core designs that a 42.6% reduction in the core area is achievable when a combination of these operations is employed.