Temperature-dependent crosstalk between adjacent MLGNR interconnects of different dimensions and its impact on gate oxide reliability

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis is carried out herein on the impact of the interconnect geometry with nanoscale dimensions on the crosstalk-induced gate oxide reliability in coupled multilayer graphene nanoribbon (MLGNR) interconnects. Simplified circuit models are used to capture the temperature-dependent phonon scattering at temperatures from 300 to 500 K. Three different cases (case-1, case-2, and case-3) of coupled interconnects with fixed sum of width and spacing (interconnect pitch) but varying width/spacing (w/s) ratio are analyzed, revealing that the coupled interconnect geometry controls the impedance parameters. Functional crosstalk analysis shows that the highest positive noise peak of the victim output over the temperature range from 300 to 500 K is obtained in case-3, where the w/s ratio is maximum. On the other hand, the reverse is true for the time duration of the noise pulse at the far end of the victim line in case-2. Analysis of the dynamic crosstalk then reveals that an average percentage delay of approximately 13.45% is obtained in case-3 with respect to (w.r.t.) case-1, while a marginal difference is found in case-2. In comparison with temperature-independent circuit models, the results obtained using the temperature-dependent circuit models of the coupled MLGNR interconnects show an average relative improvement in the time duration of the noise pulse at the victim output by approximately 39%, 35.6%, and 46.6% in case-1, case-2 and case-3, respectively, for the different lengths. The gate oxide reliability in terms of the average failure rate (AFR) for coupled MLGNR interconnects with different widths and lengths is further investigated. The results show an infinitesimal increment of the AFR with the increase in the width and length of the MLGNR interconnects. Moreover, they reveal that the interconnect geometry in case-3 is more prone to gate oxide failure compared with the other cases.