Design Issues in Intercalation-Doped-Multilayer Graphene Nanoribbon-Based Future Interconnects in Deep Submicron Regime

Abstract

Intercalation-doped multilayer graphene nanoribbon (ID-MLGNR) is a potential contender for future interconnect applications. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of temperature-dependent design issues in ID-MLGNR-based future VLSI interconnects based on a temperature-dependent mean free path (MFP) model incorporating scattering owning to rough edges and defects in GNRs, which consequently reflects the extrinsic temperature-dependent circuit behavior of these interconnects in terms of wire impedance, propagation delay, and power dissipation. It is found that in deep submicron (DSM) regime, at a specific technology node of 14-nm MFP, edge scattering improves by 74% as Fermi energy ([Formula: see text] increases from 0.2 to 0.6, and at a specularity constant, [Formula: see text] for local and intermediate level of interconnects. For similar values of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], at global length, this rise in MFP is about 70%, which signifies the significant reduction in resistance (varies inversely to MFP). Whereas, negligible variations are observed in the conductance and inductance of ID-MLGNR interconnects with an increase in temperature. Nevertheless, the reduction in resistance for local & intermediate, and global MLGNR interconnects reflects its low propagation delay and power-delay-product (PDP) for future VLSI ICs applications despite the negligibly poor decrease in power dissipation (with an overall % reduction in the power dissipation from 300[Formula: see text]K to 500[Formula: see text]K evaluated to 3.54% regardless increase in [Formula: see text] from 0.2[Formula: see text]eV to 0.6[Formula: see text]eV).