Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Nanoribbon Interconnects

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Timing Analysis in CNT Interconnects

4.1 Introduction

As the dimensions of copper wire decrease, its resistivity increases significantly due to surface roughness and grain boundary scattering [1]. The significant increase in interconnect resistance will lead to an increase in interconnect delay and reliability problems [2–4], which will impose limitations on both performance and reliability of very large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been proposed as a possible replacement for copper-based interconnects in future technology nodes [5–11].

An isolated CNT has very high quantum resistance of approximately 6.45 kΩ, which is independent of the length of the nanotube. Therefore, a bundle of CNTs connected in ...