Paper accepted in IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits

Paper Accepted in IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits

Recent research from the Arm-ECS research centre exploring low-energy wireless 3D integration has been accepted for publication by the prestigious IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits.

The paper describes a low energy, time-domain coding transceiver that can be used to communicate data between layers of a 3D-stacked chip, whilst consuming only 7.4pJ of energy per transmitted bit (and only 0.06mm2 of silicon area). The transceiver was designed by PhD student Ben Fletcher, who is exploring low cost 3D Integration for IoT devices, and can be used to achieve communication between different layers of a stacked IC fabricated using several different process technologies.

The design was demonstrated as part of a 2 tier 0.35um CMOS test chip, developed in collaboration with the Devices Circuits and Systems group of Arm Research Cambridge.

Ben Fletcher

PhD Student

3D Integration for the Internet of Things

See Project +

ICLexperimenter-2018

Taped-out in May 2018, ICL-Experimenter is the first in a series of Arm-ECS research centre test-chips designed to explore wireless 3D integration using inductive coupling links. The chip was fabricated in AMS 0.35um technology with two vertically stacked dies within each IC. This initial prototype contains eight wireless channels, each of which communicates over a distance of 120um (through 100um of silicon substrate + 20um of epoxy adhesive) and focusses on exploring different transceiver designs and inductor layouts. Wireless 3D integration is a novel approach to 3D die stacking which avoids the inflated design, fabrication and manufacturing costs associated with…