3D-ICs with self-healing capability for thermal effects in RF circuits

In this paper, a new self-healing methodology is proposed for designing 3D-ICs with self-correctable circuits for thermal effects. Therefore, this methodology enables 3D-ICs to work properly without designing/introducing sophisticated heat removing capabilities around them. It is important to note that the proposed methodology is independent to the process node technologies (CMOS or BJT) and can be used for several kinds of circuits. In addition, this self-healing methodology for thermal effects is not limited to 3D-ICs; this methodology can also be implemented in the conventional 2D-ICs for their better performance in harsh temperature conditions. In the proposed methodology, the temperature or heat around the circuit is monitored using the on-chip sensor. After sensing heat, the circuit is calibrated in the right direction to avoid any performance degradation because of the thermal effects. In this paper, the algorithm to calibrate the circuit is proposed and in addition to that a simple on-chip sensor is presented to achieve the self-healing. The proposed methodology is demonstrated by designing RF LNA and RF Oscillator. To the authors best knowledge this is the first work on self-healing in the area of 3D-ICs for thermal effects.