Shielding structures for through silicon via (TSV) to active circuit noise coupling in 3D IC

Through silicon via (TSV) has been extensively highlighted as the key solution for small form factor wide bandwidth, and low power consumption with compactly integrating multiple chips. Despite the many advantages of TSV based 3-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC), there are several challenges to be overcome such as noise coupling, fabrication process limits, and failure issues. In this paper, we proposed shielding structures for TSV to active circuit noise coupling in 3D IC. The proposed structures can capture TSV substrate noise by blocking the noise paths to active circuit, LC-VCO in this study. The noise suppression mechanisms are analyzed by the noise coupling coefficient in frequency-domain obtained by 3D electromagnetic simulation. Various shielding structures are investigated and compared with regard to sensitivity of active circuit, such as phase noise of LC-VCO.