Compact thermal models for estimation of temperature-dependent power/performance in FinFET technology

: With technology scaling, elevated temperatures caused by increased power density create a critical bottleneck modulating the circuit operation. With the advent of FinFET technologies, cooling of a circuit is becoming a bigger challenge because of the thick buried oxide inhibiting the heat flow to the heat sink and confined ultra-thin channel increasing the thermal resistivity. In this work, we propose compact thermal models to predict the temperature rise in FinFET structures. We develop cell-level compact thermal models for standard INV, NAND and NOR gates accounting for the heat transfer across the six faces of a cell. Temperature maps of benchmark circuits exhibit close correspondence with dynamic power maps because of confined regions of heat generation separated by low thermal conductivity material. It is illustrated that temperature-aware timing analysis is imperative, because of high inter-cell temperature gradient. Accurate prediction of temperature in the early phase of desi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ASPDAC
• Authors: Aditya Bansal, Mesut Meterelliyoz, Siddharth Singh, Jung Hwan Choi, Jayathi Murthy, Kaushik Roy
• Keywords: ASPDAC 2006, Compact Thermal Models, Inter-cell Temperature Gradient, Low Thermal Conductivity