Hybrid 3D-IC Cooling System Using Micro-fluidic Cooling and Thermal TSVs

Abstract

3D-ICs bring about new challenges to chip thermal management due to their high heat densities. Micro-channel based liquid cooling and thermal through-silicon-vias (TSVs) have been adopted to alleviate the thermal issues in 3D-ICs. Thermal TSV (which have no electrical significance), enables higher interlayer thermal conductivity thereby achieving a more uniform thermal profile. While somewhat effective in reducing temperatures, they are limited by the nature of the heat sink. On the other hand, micro-channel based liquid cooling is significantly capable of addressing 3D IC cooling needs but consumes a lot of extra power for pumping coolant through channels. This paper proposes a hybrid 3D-IC cooling scheme which combines micro-channel liquid cooling and thermal TSV with one acting as heat removal agent while the other enabling beneficial heat conduction paths to the micro-channel structures. The experimental results show that, the proposed hybrid cooling scheme provides much better cooling capability than using only thermal TSVs, while consuming 55% less cooling power compared with pure micro-channel cooling.