Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com August 3, Intel today introduced PowerVia rear power technology, which can help reduce power consumption, improve efficiency and performance, and meet the growing demand for computing power. In addition, the back power supply technology improves the simplicity of the design.

CTOnews.com with Intel PowerVia back power supply technology official introduction:

The Intel 20A will be the first Intel node to adopt PowerVia back power technology and RibbonFET fully surround gate transistors. It is expected that production will be ready for future mass production client ARL platform in the first half of 2024, and First Stepping is currently being launched in the fab.

The next Intel 18A is also moving forward with internal and external test chips and is expected to be ready for production in the second half of 2024. Currently, Arm has signed an agreement with Intel OEM on multi-generation cutting-edge system chip design, enabling chip designers to use Intel 18A to develop low-power computing system-on-chip (SoC). Intel will also use Intel 18A to build customized 5G system-on-chip chips for Swedish telecom equipment company Ericsson.

The background of Intel developing PowerVia back Power supply Technology

For a long time, computer chips have been made from the bottom up like pizza. Chip manufacturing starts with the smallest component transistors, and then gradually builds smaller and smaller line layers to connect transistors to various parts of the chip. these lines are called interconnects. The line layer also includes a power cord that supplies power to the chip. When the chip is finished, flip it and package it. Encapsulation provides an interface with the outside world, and then it can be put into the computer.

This method has encountered all kinds of problems. As transistors become smaller and denser, the line layer where interconnects and power lines coexist becomes a more and more chaotic network, which becomes an obstacle to improving the overall performance of the chip.

Ben Sell, vice president of technology development at Intel, was involved in the development of PowerVia. The issue was ignored before, but "now it has a huge impact," he said. In short, power and signals attenuate and workarounds are needed.

The principle of Intel PowerVia back Power supply Technology

Intel and leading chipmakers are working on "back power", looking for ways to move the power cord to the "back" of the chip, so that the "front" of the chip is only focused on interconnection.

At the 2023 VLSI Symposium, Intel demonstrated the process of manufacturing and testing its back power solution PowerVia, and achieved good performance test results.

Farewell to pizza-style manufacturing, chip manufacturing involves two sides for the first time. Here's how PowerVia works: as before, first make transistors, and then add interconnection layers. Here's an interesting part: flip the wafer and polish it to reveal the bottom layer connected to the power cord.

Sell explained that after polishing, "there are only a few metal layers now, all very thick." The "thick" here refers to microns, leaving a "very direct path to power the transistor".

The value and advantages of PowerVia back Power supply Technology

Sell confirmed that the benefits of this approach are multifaceted and outweigh the adverse effects of the higher complexity of the new process. For example, the power cord may occupy 20% of the space on the front of the chip. Therefore, as these power cords disappear, the interconnection layer can be "looser".

The benefits are not limited to manufacturing. To prove this approach, the Intel team made a test chip called Blue Sky Creek, which is based on the energy efficiency core in Intel's upcoming PC processor Meteor Lake-proving that PowerVia solves two problems caused by the old pizza approach. Now power cords and interconnections can be separated and made thicker, while improving power supply and signal transmission.

For ordinary computer users, this means reducing energy efficiency and improving speed. Complete the work faster while reducing power consumption, once again continuing the promise of Moore's Law. As summarized in the second paper, "Intel energy efficiency cores designed with PowerVia achieve 6 per cent frequency gain and more than 90 per cent standard cell utilization, and debug time is the same as Intel 4, within an acceptable range." Sell confirmed that this is a "huge" frequency increase for just moving the power cord.

Test and Verification of back Power supply Technology of Intel PowerVia

At present, chip testing technology is based on the accessibility of the first and lowest transistors. Now that the transistor is sandwiched in the middle of the chip, "a lot of technologies have to be redeveloped," Sell said.

"there are a lot of concerns and concerns, and this is probably the hardest thing to figure out-how to debug on this new back power supply," Sell said. "We have developed these debugging features over the past few years and verified them on Blue Sky Creek test chips, and we have made great progress."

To isolate PowerVia development, Intel adopted fully validated transistors based on previous-generation node Intel 4, as well as power and interconnect designs planned for Intel 20A.

Intel's manufacturing and design teams often make a variety of test chips to test new designs and IP and consolidate chip manufacturing processes, but such test chips are usually not as functional as Blue Sky Creek. In this case, teams need to verify not only whether they can build and test the chip in this way, but also whether the new configuration will cause new problems for the final product.

Such as heat dissipation. "normally, people also use the side of the chip for heat dissipation," Sell explained. "when you put the transistor in the middle, 'will there be a heat dissipation problem?' will there be a lot of local warming?'" The answer is no.

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