POWER DELIVERY IN A HETEROGENEOUS 3-D STACKED APPARATUS

• US 20110121811A1
• Filed: 11/23/2009
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Globalfoundries US Incorporated (GlobalFoundries, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kursun, Eren, Dennard, Robert H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,276,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 323/318
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/16145 the bodies being stacked
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2225/06513 Bump or bump-like direct electrical connections between devices, e.g. flip-chip connection, solder bumps
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2225/06517 Bump or bump-like direct electrical connections from device to substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2225/06541 Conductive via connections through the device, e.g. vertical interconnects, through silicon via [TSV]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/642 Capacitive arrangements H01L23/49589, H01L23/645, H01L23/647, H01L23/66 take precedence; capacitive effects between wiring layers on the semiconductor body H01L23/5222
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 25/0657 Stacked arrangements of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 25/18 the devices being of types provided for in two or more different subgroups of the same main group of groups H01L27/00 - H01L33/00, or in a single subclass of H10K, H10N

Abstract

A heterogeneous three-dimensional (3-D) stacked apparatus is provided that includes multiple layers arranged in a stacked configuration with a lower layer configured to receive a board-level voltage and one or more upper layers stacked above the lower layer. The heterogeneous 3-D stacked apparatus also includes multiple tiles per layer, where each tile is designed to receive a separately regulated voltage. The heterogeneous 3-D stacked apparatus additionally includes at least one layer in the one or more upper layers with voltage converters providing the separately regulated voltage converted from the board-level voltage.

Claims

1. A heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus comprising:

multiple layers arranged in a stacked configuration comprising a lower layer configured to receive a board-level voltage and one or more upper layers stacked above the lower layer;

multiple tiles per layer, wherein each tile is designed to receive a separately regulated voltage; and

at least one layer in the one or more upper layers comprising voltage converters providing the separately regulated voltage converted from the board-level voltage.

2. The heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a three-dimensional power delivery controller configured to control electrical distribution between the board-level voltage and the voltage converters of the at least one layer as a function of one or more of;

supply voltage requirements, voltage conversion efficiencies, estimated IR drops, estimated tile temperatures, estimated current drawn, layer maximum power, and total maximum power for the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus.

3. The heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus of claim 2 wherein the three-dimensional power delivery controller selectively routes electrical power between the layers and the voltage converters, including disabling at least one of the voltage converters in response to exceeding one of a power and thermal limit.

4. The heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more upper layers include a processor layer with processing circuitry distributed in multiple tiles of the processor layer with independently regulated supply voltages.

5. The heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus of claim 1 wherein a plurality of the voltage converters are interconnected in one of:

a tree, a column, and a mesh topology.

6. The heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus of claim 1 wherein one or more of the plurality of the voltage converters incorporate passive energy storage elements.

7. The heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus of claim 6 wherein the passive energy storage elements include one or more of:

deep trench capacitors and stacked capacitors fabricated in an embedded DRAM memory process.

8. A three-dimensional power delivery controller for power delivery management in a heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus, comprising:

a voltage control table defining voltage requirements, power and temperature ranges collected at run time, threshold values and conversion efficiencies for separate tiles of a heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus, the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus comprising multiple layers arranged in a stacked configuration with multiple tiles per layer; and

control logic configured to scan the voltage control table for changes, calculate voltage regulation commands for voltage converters in the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus, and distribute the calculated voltage regulation commands to the voltage converters to control voltage on a tile basis.

9. The three-dimensional power delivery controller of claim 8 wherein the control logic is further configured to calculate the voltage regulation commands and distribute the calculated voltage regulation commands in response to the changes exceeding one or more of a predefined limit and predicted future power requirements.

10. The three-dimensional power delivery controller of claim 8 wherein the voltage control table further comprises estimated IR drops and layer maximum power.

11. The three-dimensional power delivery controller of claim 10 wherein the control logic further comprises a finite state machine configured to calculate highest efficiency distribution paths through the layers and voltage converters of the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus according to the voltage requirements, conversion efficiencies, and estimated IR drops defined in the voltage control table.

12. The three-dimensional power delivery controller of claim 11 wherein the control logic is further configured to identify entries in the voltage control table dependent upon the changes, recalculate values of the identified entries in the voltage control table, and update values in the modeled voltage distribution paths of the finite state machine.

13. The three-dimensional power delivery controller of claim 12 wherein the voltage control table further comprises estimated tile temperatures and total maximum power for the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus.

14. The three-dimensional power delivery controller of claim 13 wherein the control logic is further configured to perform power delivery optimization by determining maximum currents for vertical columns spanning multiple layers of the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus dependent upon the changes, calculating a minimum expected energy loss for voltage conversions dependent upon the changes, and selecting a minimized expected energy loss solution that maintains the estimated tile temperatures below a thermal limit, and further maintains the layer maximum power and total maximum power.

15. A method of controlling power delivery in a heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus, comprising:

reading a voltage control table defining voltage requirements and conversion efficiencies for separate tiles of a heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus, the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus comprising multiple layers arranged in a stacked configuration with multiple tiles per layer;

scanning the voltage control table for changes;

in response to locating changes in the voltage control table, calculating voltage regulation commands for voltage converters in the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus; and

distributing the calculated voltage regulation commands to the voltage converters to control voltage on a tile basis and establish interconnectivity among the voltage converters by connecting active voltage converters and bypassing inactive voltage converters.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the changes are located in response to entries in the voltage control table exceeding one or more of a predefined limit and predicted future power requirements.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the voltage control table further comprises estimated IR drops and layer maximum power.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

modeling voltage distribution paths through the layers and voltage converters of the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus using a finite state machine, wherein states of the finite state machine map to the voltage requirements, conversion efficiencies, and estimated IR drops defined in the voltage control table.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

identifying entries in the voltage control table dependent upon the changes;

recalculating values of the dependent entries in the voltage control table; and

updating values in the modeled voltage distribution paths of the finite state machine.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising performing power delivery optimization by:

determining maximum currents for vertical columns spanning multiple layers of the heterogeneous three-dimensional stacked apparatus dependent upon the changes;

calculating a minimum expected energy loss for voltage conversions dependent upon the changes; and

selecting a minimized expected energy loss solution that maintains an estimated tile temperatures below a thermal limit, and further maintains the layer maximum power and a total maximum power.