8.1 A 4×4×2 homogeneous scalable 3D network-on-chip circuit with 326MFlit/s 0.66pJ/b robust and fault-tolerant asynchronous 3D links

Pascal Vivet, Yvain Thonnart, Romain Lemaire, Edith Beigné, Christian Bernard, Florian Darve, Didier Lattard, Ivan Miro Panades, Cristiano Santos, Fabien Clermidy, Séverine Cheramy, Frédéric Pétrot, Eric Flamand, Jean Michailos

Abstract: By shortening communication distance across dies, 3D technologies are a key to continued improvements in computing density. For 4G telecom baseband processing, specific computing units arranged in a regular network-on-chip (NoC) array provide power-efficient computation [1]. However, for advanced MIMO processing, more computing power is required when the number of antennas increases. This paper presents a homogeneous 3D circuit composed of regular tiles assembled using a 4x4x2 network-on-chip, using robust and fault tolerant asynchronous 3D links, providing 326MFlit/s @ 0.66pJ/b, fabricated in CMOS 65nm technology using 1980 TSVs in a Face2Back configuration.