Thermal management of 3-D IC using carbon nanotube thermal via

In this paper we analysed the problem of thermal management in three dimensional (3-D) IC. In 3-D IC, due to low thermal conductive of interlayer dielectric the heat generated in channel and interconnect cannot be effectively dissipated, thereby producing localized hot-spot. Copper thermal via is currently used as vertical heat spreader to reduce the temperature of hotspots. We performed 3-D finite element analysis to investigate the potential of carbon nano-tube (CNT) as vertical heat spreader due to its high thermal conductivity along the tube axis. Simulation results reflected better performance of CNT via compared to the traditional copper via for heat removal in 3-D chip. Also it was showed that heat removal was a strong function of number of via used. We varied the thermal conductivity of CNT over a wide range to consider practical feasibility and found satisfactory results. Our simulation result will encourage the chip designers and IC manufacturer to use CNT thermal via as future material for heat management.