Abstract:
A voltage regulation module and system for an integrated circuit die. The voltage regulation module includes an interposer situated in a stack between a substrate and the integrated circuit die. The interposer includes a hybrid array of voltage regulation elements for receiving voltage from the power supply and for down-converting the voltage from the power supply into a regulated voltage supplied to the integrated circuit die. The hybrid array of voltage regulation elements includes both high-bandwidth linear regulation elements for providing voltage regulation to areas on the integrated circuit die that intermittently demand relatively high current levels, and low-bandwidth switching regulator elements that are highly power efficient.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to integrated circuit devices and more particularly, but without limitation, relates to power delivery for such devices.  
         BACKGROUND INFORMATION  
         [0002]    The use of complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) in integrated circuits has facilitated reduction in the amount of power required for standard operation and has accordingly allowed chip designers to reduce the standard supply voltage provided to integrated circuits down to a single volt (1 V). At the same time the operational voltages are being scaled down, chip power usage is actually increasing with the greater frequencies and numbers of transistors in high-performance circuits. According to ohm&#39;s law (Power=Voltage×Current), if power is increasing while voltage is decreasing, current must be increasing at a high rate to both match the increasing power while compensating for the decrease in voltage. These high current levels place increasing demands on the voltage regulation systems that provide power to the VLSI circuits.  
           [0003]    To provide for such voltage regulation, very large scale integrated circuit (VLSI) designers have developed voltage regulation modules (VRMS) that are employed in a system in conjunction with VLSI circuit dies. A conventional arrangement of a voltage regulation system, illustrated in FIG. 1, shows a VRM module  20  placed adjacent to a VLSI circuit die  10 , with both the VRM module  20  and the VLSI circuit  10  stacked on a substrate  5 . The VLSI  10  and VRM module are equipped with respective heat sinks  15 ,  25  and are respectively coupled to the substrate via interconnect wires or solder elements  12 ,  22 . The VRM module  20  is connected to the VLSI via interconnect wires that run through the substrate  5 . The substrate is in turn coupled to external interfaces (not shown) via solder ball elements  8 .  
           [0004]    Two problems associated with implementation of voltage regulation in high-performance circuits are on-die di/dt voltage “droops”, which occur when an immediate demand for current at a localized region of the VLSI die causes a sudden drop in the supply voltage; and IR and Ldi/dt voltage drops, which occur as current is transported over interconnect lines between voltage regulation modules (VRMs) and the VLSI die. In the conventional arrangement of FIG. 1, the placement of the VRM module  20  adjacent to the VLSI assembly  10  on the substrate  5  helps minimize the IR and Ldi/dt voltage drops because of the close proximity between the VRM module and the VLSI die. However, optimal voltage regulation using the conventional arrangement can be impaired by power delivery interconnect bottlenecks between the VRM and the VLSI assembly. In addition, adjacent placement of the VRM module and the VLSI assembly concentrates VRM functionality in a single location, which can cause sub-optimal use of the resources of the VRM system. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0005]    [0005]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a cross-section of a conventional system for voltage regulation of a VLSI circuit.  
         [0006]    [0006]FIG. 2A is a block diagram showing a cross-section of a VLSI voltage regulation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0007]    [0007]FIG. 2B is a block diagram showing a cross-section of a VLSI voltage regulation system according to a second embodiment of the present invention in which thru-vias do not traverse the interposer layer.  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of the two-dimensional hybrid array of the interposer layer according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 4 is a graph showing the reduction in di/dt voltage droops using the system and method of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0010]    In accordance with the present invention, a stacked-die approach is used for integrating voltage regulator modules with VLSI chips to minimize IR voltage drops in high current delivery pathways at low voltages. In the stacked-die approach a silicon interposer layer is stacked so that it adjoins and faces a VLSI circuit or processer die. The two-dimensional interface and minimal separation distance between the interposer layer and the VLSI die helps ensure minimal IR voltage drops and eliminates supply bottlenecks. Within the interposer layer, a hybrid voltage regulator array arrangement assists in the minimization of on-die voltage droops in high di/dt events. The array includes relatively fast, high-bandwidth linear regulators and relatively slower, but more efficient low-bandwidth switching regulators. By positioning linear regulators in so-called ‘hot spots’ on the VLSI die that intermittently demand high current levels, rapid adjustments in voltage supply levels can be achieved, reducing the magnitude of the di/dt voltage droops.  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2A illustrates an embodiment of the VLSI assembly with voltage regulation according to the present invention. As shown, a VLSI assembly  2  includes a substrate  5 , which may be a motherboard or a chip board that contains numerous interconnect lines connecting to other devices not shown, such as, for example, a power supply, input/output devices, and other processor units. On top of the substrate is a thin interposer layer  30 , made from a semiconductor such as silicon. Given current microfabrication techniques, the width of the interposer layer  30  can be as small as 50 microns, but is not limited thereby. The semiconductor interposer layer  30  contains active voltage regulator elements, described in further detail below, and passive components including metal-insulator-metal capacitors. The side of the interposer layer  30  facing the substrate  5 , denoted the “back” side, is coupled to the substrate via solder ball connectors  33 , and receives the power supply voltage therefrom.  
         [0012]    The opposite side of the interposer layer  30 , denoted the “circuit” side, is bonded in a flip-chip fashion, i.e., circuit-side to circuit-side, with VLSI die  10 . In the embodiment shown the circuit side of the interposer layer  30  maps approximately 1 to 1 with the VLSI circuit die  10 , i.e., they have the same surface dimensions. The circuit side of the interposer layer  30  can be coupled to the VLSI die  10  by flip-chip solder bump connectors  36  and any other VLSI interconnect layers that may be included on the VLSI die  10 . Alternatively, the interposer layer  30  can be coupled to the VLSI die by copper-to-copper interconnects as known in the art. The VLSI die  10  is in turn coupled to a heat sink  15  which prevents circuit damage by diffusing excessive heat energy from the VLSI die. The voltage regulator elements of the interposer layer  30  convert a higher supply voltage to a lower voltage that is then output to the power grid of the VLSI die  10  via the connectors  36 . Since the voltage regulators within the interposer layer  30  are separated from the circuits on the VLSI die  10  only by the distance covered by the solder bumps  36  which are typically or copper-to-copper interconnects, that can be on the order of a few microns in length, the lowered-voltage supply can be distributed very close to the circuits on the VLSI die, minimizing IR and Ldi/dt voltage drops. The copper-to-copper interconnects also provide for a high level of thermal conductivity between the interposer layer  30  and the VLSI die  10 .  
         [0013]    Because the interposer layer  30  is positioned in between the substrate  5  and the VLSI die  10 , the interposer layer is thinned to allow a set of thru-vias, such as  31   a, b, c,  to penetrate through the layer. The thru-vias  31   a, b, c  are interconnectors that traverse the entire interposer layer  30 , while being insulated from the interposer. According to one embodiment of the voltage regulation system, the thru-vias  31   a, b, c  couple the VLSI die  10  directly to the substrate so that I/O data transmission operations can be conducted directly between the VLSI die and the substrate. As indicated in FIG. 3, the thru-vias are situated around the perimeter of the interposer layer  30  and do not affect the voltage regulation components of the interposer layer. FIG. 2B shows an alternative embodiment that does not include thru-vias. Instead, the substrate  5  and the VLSI die  10  are coupled via I/O interconnect wires, such as  41   a, b  that run beyond the edge of the interposer layer  30 .  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 3 shows a plan view of the circuit side of the interposer layer  30 . As shown, the layer is square in profile, but the square shape is merely illustrative and rectangular shape that maps approximately 1:1 with the VLSI circuit die can be used. The interposer layer  30  includes a perimeter region  40  through which the thru-vias may protrude if they are used to directly interconnect the VLSI die with the substrate. Enclosed within the perimeter region  40  is a hybrid voltage regulator array  42 . The hybrid regulator array  42 , according to a first embodiment, includes groups of high-bandwidth linear voltage regulators  50  (shown as darkened squares) distributed among rows and columns of high-efficiency, low-bandwidth, switching regulators  45  (shown as light boxes). Within the array, passive devices such as metal-insulator-metal capacitors and high-bandwidth inductors may be interspersed with the linear  50  and switching regulators. The availability of these passive components in the interposer layer  30  can provide additional benefit to high-speed I/O circuits in the VLSI die through equalization circuit configurations employing these components.  
         [0015]    The linear voltage regulators  50  may be, for example, of the type described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,955,870 and 6,081,105, which are small in size and can rapidly adjust to changes in supply voltage. Such regulators use a gating device such as an n-FET in series with the load current. The gate of the device is controlled by the difference between the required reference voltage level and the actual output voltage level via feedback. In this manner, the gate-source voltage, V GS , responds immediately to drops in output voltage, enabling the device to rapidly supply current to fill any voltage deficiency during transient high di/dt events. The linear voltage regulators  50  have a high-bandwidth in that they are able to respond to the high-frequency components of immediate step-function current demands. The drawback of using linear voltage regulators  50  is that they dissipate power in proportion to the drain-source voltage VDS and are accordingly less power-efficient that switching regulators which function by switching a high input voltage for short durations into smoothing LC filters. The smoothing LC filters deliver the average voltage value determined as the product of the duty-cycle of the switching operation and the input voltage to a load. The principle of energy conservation allows for a large current to be delivered at a low output voltage from a small current input to the system at a high input voltage. The switching regulators have a lower bandwidth because their response to high-frequency components of current demand functions is limited.  
         [0016]    Therefore, to maximize power efficiency, the linear voltage regulators  50  are more sparingly used in the array in comparison to switching regulators  45  and are distributed at strategic locations to regulate the voltage at “hot-spots” on the VLSI die, or at locations particularly sensitive to significant power supply voltage droops. This hybrid approach using linear regulators  50  at hot-spots also minimizes the need to include high-speed decoupling capacitors on the VLSI die, saving much-needed space for other types of components. In an alternative embodiment, the linear voltage regulators may be implemented within the VLSI die for cost reasons. However, in this case extra precautions may be required to make the integrated circuits tolerant to high voltages because the VLSI is designed to operate at low voltages (e.g., 1V), and the direct transmission of high input supply voltages (e.g., 5V) to the VLSI die raises reliability concerns for devices within the die.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 shows a graph of output supply voltage over time that compares the di/dt response of a conventional voltage regulation system and the hybrid voltage regulation arrangement according to the present invention. A first curve  54  indicates a droop in voltage in response to a high di/dt event when the conventional voltage regulation module arrangement is used. As shown, the magnitude of the droop reaches as high as 88 mV. In contrast, the second curve  58 , representing the response of the hybrid voltage regulation system, shows a dampened di/dt voltage droop having a maximum magnitude of 65 mV, amounting to over a 25 percent improvement in di/dt response over the conventional system.  
         [0018]    In the foregoing description, the system and method of the invention have been described with reference to a number of examples that are not to be considered limiting. Rather, it is to be understood and expected that variations in the principles of the system and method herein disclosed may be made by one skilled in the art, and it is intended that such modifications, changes, and/or substitutions are to be included within the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.