Us Foundry Pioneers Breakthrough 3D Chip Design

The advent of the first truly 3D chip fabricated at a US foundry marks a significant milestone in semiconductor manufacturing. Developed by a collaborative research team from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, the innovative design showcases substantial performance gains over conventional flat chip designs.

The prototype, manufactured on SkyWater Technology’s 200mm production line using a mature 90nm to 130nm process, departs from traditional two-dimensional layouts by stacking memory and logic directly on top of one another in a single, continuous process. This novel approach enables the creation of dense networks of vertical interconnects that significantly shorten data paths between memory cells and compute units.

The researchers employed a low-temperature process to fabricate each device layer sequentially on the same wafer, without damaging underlying circuitry. This innovative method allows for the construction of a single device with multiple layers, rather than assembling finished dies into a package. The stack integrates conventional silicon CMOS logic with resistive RAM layers and carbon nanotube field-effect transistors.

The manufacturing process is noteworthy for its thermal budget, which remains relatively stable at around 415°C. This controlled temperature ensures that the underlying circuitry remains intact, while allowing for the creation of a robust and efficient device stack.

Initial hardware tests demonstrate a four-fold improvement in throughput compared to a comparable 2D implementation operating at similar latency and footprint. These results are promising, indicating that the 3D design can efficiently process data without compromising performance.

Beyond the measured hardware results, the researchers also evaluated taller stacks through simulation. Designs with additional tiers of memory and compute showed impressive twelve-fold performance improvements on AI-style workloads, including models derived from Meta’s LLaMA architecture. The team argues that this architecture has the potential to deliver 100-fold to 1,000-fold improvements in energy-delay product by continuing to scale vertical integration rather than shrinking transistors.

The significance of this achievement lies not only in its technical merits but also in its implications for industrial manufacturing processes. Academic labs have previously demonstrated experimental 3D chips, but the current work represents a breakthrough in translating these concepts into commercial production environments.

SkyWater Technology’s involvement in the project underscores the company’s commitment to advancing the state-of-the-art in semiconductor manufacturing. The foundry’s vice president of technology development operations, Mark Nelson, emphasizes the importance of collaborating with academic institutions to bridge the gap between research and industrial applications.

“Turning a cutting-edge academic concept into something a commercial fab can build is an enormous challenge,” Dr. Nelson noted. “This project demonstrates that monolithic 3D architectures can be successfully transferred into domestic manufacturing flows.”

The IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2025) provided the platform for the team to present their research, sharing their findings with a global audience of industry professionals and researchers.

As the world continues to evolve towards more efficient and sustainable computing solutions, advancements like this 3D chip fabrication have the potential to revolutionize the way we approach semiconductor manufacturing. The future of device design holds much promise, and it will be exciting to see how these innovations are harnessed in the years to come.

The prospect of devices with up to a thousand-fold improvement in energy-delay product has significant implications for various industries, from artificial intelligence and machine learning to healthcare and finance. As researchers continue to push the boundaries of semiconductor technology, we can expect to see even more groundbreaking advancements in the near future.

With SkyWater Technology at the forefront of this innovation, the partnership between academia and industry is poised to drive meaningful progress in the world of computing. The collaboration between these esteemed institutions has not only yielded impressive technical results but also underscored the importance of collaborative research and development in advancing the field of semiconductor manufacturing.

The emergence of 3D chip fabrication technology marks a significant milestone on the path towards creating more efficient, sustainable, and powerful computing solutions. As we move forward into an increasingly complex and interconnected world, it is essential that we continue to invest in research and innovation to stay ahead of the curve.

The development of the first truly 3D chip fabricated at a US foundry represents a significant achievement in the field of semiconductor manufacturing. The innovative design has demonstrated substantial performance gains over conventional flat chip designs. With its potential to deliver 100-fold to 1,000-fold improvements in energy-delay product, this technology holds significant promise for various industries and applications.