Green energy harvesting technology in 3D IC

Three dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) is recognized as the breakthrough technology to be widely used in semiconductor industries in the next three years. The green energy harvesting technology is important for future 3D IC development. In this paper, the material and fabrication of the thermocouple structures are investigated for memory-on-logic 3D IC. The efficiency of such a green energy harvesting system is evaluated. By utilizing the large temperature difference between memory and logic layers, the proposed thermocouple structures convert the wasted heat in the logic layer into electricity in the memory layer and provide the green energy for the memory operations. The significance of this proposed energy harvesting technology is to enable innovations that establish green energy 3D ICs for many future applications.