A crash course in 3D IC technology

What’s 3D IC, and what’s causing the shift from 2D IC to 3D IC? How does this new technology relate to heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging? What is required for a successful 3D IC implementation? EDN recently published a three-article series to cover multiple facets of this advanced packaging technology.

Below is a sneak peek at this three-article series, which explains 3D IC fundamentals, microarchitectures, toolkits, and design use cases.

Part one, titled “Making your architecture ready for 3D IC”, provided essential context and technical depth for design engineers working toward highly integrated, efficient, and resilient 3D IC systems. It explains 3D IC microarchitectures that redefine how data and controls move through a system, how blocks are partitioned and co-optimized across both horizontal and vertical domains, and how early-stage design decisions address the unique challenges of 3D integration.

Making your architecture ready for 3D IC

Part two, titled “Putting 3D IC to work for you”, outlines the challenges and opportunities in adopting 3D IC technology. It demonstrates how 3D IC enables efficient chiplet integration and reuse, accelerates innovation, and guarantees manufacturability across organizational boundaries. The article also provides a detailed examination of 3D IC design toolkits and workflows, as well as their incorporation of AI technology.

Putting 3D IC to work for you

The third and final part, titled “Automating FOWLP design: A comprehensive framework for next-generation integration”, presents fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) as a case study, showing how automation frameworks manage the inherent complexity of advanced packaging and the scale of modern layouts, racking up millions of pins and tens of thousands of nets. It also demonstrates how effective frameworks promote collaboration among package designers, layout specialists, signal and power integrity analysts, and thermal and mechanical engineers.

Automating FOWLP design: A comprehensive framework for next-generation integration

Related Content

• 3D IC Design
• Thermal analysis tool aims to reinvigorate 3D-IC design
• Heterogeneous Integration and the Evolution of IC Packaging
• Tighter Integration Between Process Technologies and Packaging
• Advanced IC Packaging: The Roadmap to 3D IC Semiconductor Scaling

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