Is 3D integration the way out of the crossroads?

In the past few years, we have witnessed the energy crisis and the financial tsunami that played an unwanted duo, changing the world in many aspects that affect most of us. Like many others, the semiconductor industry is trying to recover from the depression triggered by the duo. While companies are working hard in getting out of the slump, many research organizations are rethinking how their R&D budget should be invested. We consider three-dimensional (3D) integration based on the through-silicon-via (TSV) technology a cost-effective way to explore new applications in the future, alleviating the fast growing development cost of system-on-chip (SOC) products. However, there are technical problems to be solved and business models to be established before the industry is ready for manufacturing TSV-based 3D integrated devices. In this paper, we will first give an overview of the status of the worldwide semiconductor industry, identifying challenges and trends, which somewhat justifies our focus on 3D integration. We will then discuss the design and test issues, and some solutions for 3D integrated devices. We will propose approaches from our work at ITRI and NTHU.