E-field induced keep-out zone determination method of through-silicon vias for 3-D ICs

Abstract

An increase in the number of the through‑silicon vias (TSVs) per unit area causes the electrical channel in neighboring semiconductor devices to be closer to the depletion region induced by the electric-field (E-field) around the TSV. A keep-out zone (KOZ) is required to ensure the proper operation of three-dimensional integrated circuits (3-D ICs) using TSVs given these negative effects. The proposed method with which to determine the KOZ for 3-D ICs includes procedures for extracting the charges produced during the TSV formation process and for calculating the depletion region from a nonlinear metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitance model. The results of a comparison of the proposed method with a previous method show that the charge carriers in the depletion region and charge-type imperfections of in TSV must be considered for an accurate KOZ.