Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Technology, Engineering, Electrical & Electronic, Engineering, Design automation, design centering, integrated circuit design, technology assessment, MEMORY, SYSTEM, 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, 0903 Biomedical Engineering, 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware

Abstract:

It is widely acknowledged that three-dimensional (3-D) technologies offer numerous opportunities for system design. In recent years, significant progress has been made on these 3-D technologies, and they have become probably the best hope for carrying the semiconductor industry beyond the path of Moore's law. However, a clear roadmap is missing to successfully introduce this 3-D technology onto the market. Today, a plurality of 3-D technology options exists, which requires different design and test strategies. To crystallize the many technology options in a few mainstream technologies, it is mandatory to coexplore both technology and design options. The contribution of this paper is to introduce a novel path finding methodology to untangle the many intertwined design/technology options. This holistic approach will be applied on a representative 3-D case study. Initial results demonstrate the benefits of the proposed path-finding methodology to steer the technology development and fine-tune design strategies. © 2006 IEEE.