Paradigm Shift of On-Chip Interconnects from Electrical to Optical

Abstract

The continuing reduction in feature sizes on electronic chips and high-data transmission rate has led to increased interconnects complexity within integrated circuit. The ITRS roadmap has highlighted numerous issues with metal interconnects at further scaled technology nodes, such as interconnect delay, power consumption, electromagnetic interference, crosstalk. The interconnect technologies are not able to keep up the required performance, expected from high-performance computing systems. Continuing advances in interconnection technology are seen as essential for improvements in integrated circuit performance. Consequently, different design approaches, materials, techniques, and technologies have been explored which can replace existing conventional copper interconnect technology with better performance, cost effectivity, and compatibility with existing CMOS fabrication processes to meet chip performance in deep sub-micrometer and nanometer regimes. This chapter aims to address the issues with the electrical interconnects and presents the optical link with advantages and challenges that need to be addressed before the optical technology can successfully resolve current interconnect bottlenecks.