• AI compute is scaling at ~1.35× per year, nearly twice the pace of transistor scaling. • Thus, the semiconductor industry has reached a hard inflection point: if we can’t scale down, we must scale up. • Increasingly, engineering teams are turning to 3D ICs to keep pace with the ascent of next-gen AI scaling. • However, designing in three-dimensions also exacerbates system complexity, leaving IC and package designers with a pressing question: how do you explore millions of design considerations and still optimize and validate system performance within schedule constraints? • This article examines six trends that will help design teams overcome this challenge and help them reshape the future of 3D IC design in 2026. • Trend 1: STCO becomes crucial for multi-chiplet integration at AI scales Advanced packages already exceed tens of millions of pins, with trajectories pointing toward hundreds of millions.
Article Summaries:
- AI compute is scaling at ~1.35× per year, nearly twice the pace of transistor scaling. Thus, the semiconductor industry has reached a hard inflection point: if we can’t scale down, we must scale up. Increasingly, engineering teams are turning to 3D ICs to keep pace with the ascent of next-gen AI scaling. However, designing in three-dimensions also exacerbates system complexity, leaving IC and package designers with a pressing question: how do you explore millions of design considerations and still optimize and validate system performance within schedule constraints? This article examines six t
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