ABSTRACT
ThruChip Interface (TCI) is a low-cost wireless version of through-silicon via (TSV). TCI wirelessly communicates over three-dimensionally (3D) stacked chips through inductive coupling between on-chip coils. This chapter comprehensively overviews the TCI technology together with recent research activities. It also overviews TCI basics and fundamentals. The chapter explains detailed channel characteristics and design guidelines. It introduces TCI circuit techniques inspired by legacy wireline arts for communication performance enhancement. From the telephone exchange board era to the optical fiber network of today, various circuit techniques were innovated in a wireline circuit field. Fusion combination between TCI and wireline technology introduces additional functions and also enhances communication performance. The chapter describes TCI applications which covers from practical to emerging applications. The TCI transceiver circuit can be implemented in a very simple, almost complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital circuit. A wireless channel utilized in TCI communications is a near-field inductive coupling channel. The TCI channel operates based on electromagnetic induction.
