Thermal modeling of 3D stacks for floorplanning

Moving from 2D to 3D integration of electrical systems offers several advantages and is considered to be an important option in design of future systems. On the other hand the density of active devices in 3D circuits is much higher which may lead to higher temperatures and hotspots. The design of 3D integrated electrical systems therefore requires careful verification of proposed solutions against thermal constraints at an early design stage. In this paper the thermal behavior of the entire stack is considered by integration thermal field parameters into a cost function during floorplanning, this means during positioning and interconnecting of all functional blocks.