3DIM³ project

3D-TSV Integration for Multimedia and Mobile Applications (3DIM³) is a CATRENE project which aims to enable the design and implementation of heterogeneous SoCs (system on chip), by making use of emerging 3D TSV (through-silicon via) technology.

SoCs contain analog, digital, and memory components. These 3 kinds of component preferably use different silicon technologies, and follow Moore’s law at different rates.  As a result, it is desirable to compose a system (SoC) not with a single technology but built on a heterogeneous system. This is accomplished by using multiple dies, each of which is specialized in terms of silicon technology, architecture, etc.  These dies are stacked (placed on top of each other) and connected through vertical connections called through-silicon vias (TSV).  Although advances have been made at the technology level of 3D TSV, little work has been done on how to build entire systems, exploring the design-time trade-offs, or system-level platform architectures. 

The 3DIM³ project aims to:

• implement a 3D TSV design flow to build 3D TSV SoCs at the technology level
• define and implement 3D TSV SoC platforms and architectures, e.g. analog-digital-memory die trade-offs
• demonstrate the use of such a design flow resulting in an instance of a platform

Advantages of 3D TSV technology are higher performances, lower power consumption, and smaller size/form factor at lower cost. 3D integration is widely seen as the enabler for next-generation scaling for cost reduction and performance improvement. 3DIM³ aims to build on this enabling technology to construct entire systems with new system-level architectures that leverage the technology, to ensure a cost-performance advantage for next-generation SoCs.

Project participants include industry partners and research institutes from 5 European countries.

For more information about the 3DIM³ project, please visit http://www.3dim3.eu