A comparative study of three transmission line models for on-chip interconnects

Abstract

In this paper, three effective transmission line (T-line) models are studied. One is the conventional frequency-dependent RLGC transmission line model which can think about the effect of skin effect and the dielectric-loss due to dielectric polarization and dipole rotation. The second is the fraction-order RLGC transmission line model which also considers the loss from frequency-dependent dispersion and non-quasi-static effects at Terahertz (THz) frequency band. Finally the third is the memory-dependent RLGC transmission line model through transfer function analysis, by comparing the poles and zeros of the transfer function of the equivalent circuit of the RLGC model, most of the parasitic effect including memory effect in THz frequency can be take into account. Three models are compared for on-chip coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines over a wide frequency range from dc up to 67 GHz in SMIC 65 nm technology. And the memory-dependent model is much accurate than others.