An on-chip TSV emulation using metal bar surrounded by metal ring to develop interface circuits

Abstract

TSV is considered to be the next industry standard for chip interconnects because of huge number of I/O pins and high frequency capability. However, TSV is not readily available to develop interface circuits. An on-chip TSV emulation is presented by using a horizontal metal bar surrounded by a horizontal metal ring on a silicon chip with a 0.13-μm CMOS process. The resistance and capacitance of emulated TSVs and the substrate resistance are extracted as an HSPICE W-element model through measurements with an LCR meter and the oscillation frequency of on-chip ring oscillator. The comparison of the S-parameter measurements (transmission, crosstalk) showed good agreement between measurements and the simulation using the extracted parameters. © 2012 IEEE.