Thermal-aware mobile SoC design and test in 14nm finfet technology

Thermal characteristic is one of the key specifications in mobile SOC products. Typically, process scaling tends to improve global thermal characteristics by power reduction; however, it also increases local hot-spot issues due to higher power density. Moreover, the finfet device technology introduces a new thermal problem, called “self-heating.” Therefore, Samsung is considering thermal issues comprehensively from design to test in order to ensure both product yield and quality. In this talk, we will address three key thermal problems; the self-heating in finfet device, the on-chip thermal hot-spots, and the set-level thermal-induced performance degradation. To tackle these obstacles, the design and test flows were enhanced to prevent and screen the thermal problems, and they were validated in the first mobile SOC product of 14nm finfet process.