CoDAPT: a concurrent data and power transceiver for fully wireless 3D-ICs

Abstract

Three dimensional system integration is a promising enabling technology for realising heterogeneous ICs, facilitating stacking of disparate elements such as MEMS, sensors, analogue components, memories and digital processing. Recently, research has looked to contactless 3D integration using inductive coupling links (ICLs) to provide a low-cost alternative to conventional contact-based approaches (e.g. through silicon vias) for 3D integration. In this paper, we present a novel, fully wireless, ICL architecture for Concurrent Data and Power Transfer (CoDAPT) between tiers of a 3D-IC. The proposed CoDAPT architecture uses only a single inductor for simultaneous power transmission and data communication, resulting in high area efficiency, whilst facilitating low-cost, straightforward die stacking. The proposed design is experimentally validated through full wave EM and SPICE simulation and demonstrates capability to communicate data vertically at a rate of 1.3Gbps/channel (utilising an area of only 0.052mm2) whilst simultaneously achieving power delivery of 0.83mW, under standard operating conditions. A case study is also presented, demonstrating that CoDAPT achieves an area reduction greater than 1.7x when compared with existing works, representing an important progression towards ultra low-cost 3D-ICs through fully wireless stacking.

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ORCID for Benjamin, James Fletcher: orcid.org/0000-0002-4957-1934

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