ABSTRACT

Signal reliability of nano-scale interconnects is a major cause of concern at subthreshold voltages. This paper deals with the subthreshold operation of carbon nanotube (CNT) bundle interconnects of two different geometries viz. square CNT bundles (S-CNT) and triangular CNT (T-CNT) bundles. The output waveforms of the two interconnect geometries are studied to find out the effects of ON/OFF times and swing on the rising/falling propagation delays and power dissipated by the interconnects. Six cases of driver/load configurations comprising of inverter and transmission gates are considered in this study. Results show that the performance of CNT bundle interconnects is dependent on the timing and swing of the output waveforms. Also, triangular CNT bundle interconnects showed better performance in terms of propagation delay and power dissipated compared to traditionally proposed square CNT bundles.

摘要

纳米级互连的信号可靠性是亚阈值电压下的一个主要问题。本文涉及两种不同几何形状的碳纳米管 (CNT) 束互连的亚阈值操作，即。方形碳纳米管束 (S-CNT) 和三角形碳纳米管 (T-CNT) 束。研究了两种互连几何结构的输出波形，以找出 ON/OFF 时间和摆动对上升/下降传播延迟和互连功耗的影响。本研究考虑了包括逆变器和传输门的六种驱动器/负载配置情况。结果表明，CNT 束互连的性能取决于输出波形的时序和摆动。还，