NSF: Electrical-Thermal Co-Design of Microfluidically-Cooled 3D ICs

Associate Professor Ankur Srivastava (ECE/ISR) is the principal investigator of a new National Science Foundation Software and Hardware Foundation collaborative-research grant, Electrical-Thermal Co-Design of Microfluidically-Cooled 3D IC’s. The goal of the project is to develop and refine the micro-fluidic 3D IC cooling technology.

The three-year, $925K grant is a collaborative proposal between the University of Maryland (UMD) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). University of Maryland is the lead institution and Srivastava is the lead PI. The Georgia Tech investigators include Dr. Muhannad Bakir and Dr Yogi Joshi.

The project investigates the need for co-design of the electronic as well as the cooling side of computer systems, and more specifically 3D ICs. 3D ICs are touted as the next innovation in integration technology.  Due to higher device densities, thermal issues in 3D ICs present a challenge which requires further research and exploration. This research explores interlayer micro-fluidic cooling technology for heat removal in 3D ICs. Micro-fluidic cooling enables one to control the level of cooling available in different areas of the chip. This provides new opportunities for co-design of the cooling as well as the electronic aspects of the system with respect to determining the level of computing and cooling in different areas of the chip. This co-design may significantly improve the performance and energy efficiency of the system.