The impact of interstratal interconnect density on the performance of three-dimensional integrated circuits

This work examines the impact of interstratal interconnect density on the wire-length distribution and on the performance of three-dimensional integrated circuits. A model for the wire-length distribution of 3D-ICs, which takes into account the interstratal interconnect density, is proposed first. The wire-length distributions of 2D-IC, homogeneous (ideal), semi-ideal and realistic 3D-ICs containing two strata are generated using the established model. Finally, the system-level performance of these circuits is assessed by evaluating the delay time and the dynamic switching energy of a critical path containing several interconnected inverters. The lengths of wires connecting inverters are randomly sampled from the wire-length distributions of the circuits under investigation. The inverters and interconnects have electrical properties of recent proposals for the 45-nm technology node.