Three-dimensional Integrated Circuit Design

Chapter 10. Case Study - Clock Distribution Networks for 3-D ICs

In the previous chapters, the advantages that result from introducing the third dimension to integrated circuit applications are discussed. Significant improvement in interconnect performance and power consumption is predicted for these circuits, constituting an important opportunity for high-performance digital circuits. An omnipresent and challenging issue for synchronous digital circuits is the reliable distribution of the clock signal to the many hundreds of thousands of sequential elements distributed throughout a synchronous circuit [312]. The complexity is further increased in 3-D ICs as sequential elements belonging to the same clock domain (i.e., synchronized by the same ...