TSV power supply array electromigration lifetime analysis in 3D ICS

Electromigration (EM) can cause severe reliability issues in contemporary integrated circuits. For the emerging three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs), the introduction of through-silicon vias (TSVs) as the vertical signal carrier complicates the electromigration analysis. In particular, an accurate EM analysis on TSV arrays that are used in the power supply network is critical since the large current going through those TSVs can accelerate their degradation. In this work, we propose a novel EM analysis framework that focuses on TSV arrays in the power supply network, under the circumstance of uneven current distribution. The impacts of various design factors on the EM lifetime are discussed in detail. Our results reveal that the predicted TSV array lifetime is largely biased without proper current distribution analysis, resulting in an unexpected early failure.