Development of a random-walk algorithm for IC-interconnect analysis: 2D TE benchmarks, materially homogeneous domains

Abstract

Fundamentally, the electrical properties of advanced multi-level IC interconnects must be described with Maxwell's equations. As an initial step towards developing an efficient methodology for electromagnetic analysis of IC interconnects, we have defined an entirely new numerical floating RW (Random-Walk) algorithm. The algorithm describes TE-mode (Transverse Electric) propagation within materially homogeneous 2D domains. The major difficulty of deriving simple, analytical surface Green's functions has been resolved by means of iterative perturbation theory. Square-domain insulator and conductor benchmark test problems yielded a mean absolute error of 0.004+0.0024i within a computed (normalized) solution range [0.0,1.0-0.3i]. Operation frequencies were 400 GHz and 1.0 GHz, for respective insulator and conductor problem sizes of 100 /spl mu/m and 10 /spl mu/m.