Thermal Stability Analysis of Graphene Nano-ribbon Interconnect and Applicability for Terahertz Frequency

Abstract

In this paper, we have studied the thermal stability of GNR and Cu interconnects for terahertz frequency range. The top-contact (TC) and side-contact (SC) GNR interconnects are analyzed for stability, RC-delay, and power consumption at different interconnect lengths ($10\,{\upmu }\hbox {m}$, $50\,{\upmu }\hbox {m}$ and $100\,{\upmu }\hbox {m}$) and different chip operating temperatures (233 K, 300 K and 378 K). The RC-delay and power consumption are analyzed with the help of transmission line model (TLM) using 16nm PTM-HP standard CMOS model. In our analysis, we have shown that the RC-time constant for SC-GNR is $\sim (3{-}7)\times$ and $\sim (2{-}6)\times$ less than that of TC-GNR and Cu interconnects. Similarly, we have shown that the power consumption for SC-GNR is $\sim (4{-}7)\times$ and $\sim (2{-}5)\times$ less than that of TC-GNR and Cu. In terms of stability, SC-GNR interconnect is more stable at higher frequency range ($>10^{12}$ Hz) compared with TC-GNR and Cu for $10\,{\upmu }\hbox {m}$ interconnect length and three different chip operating temperatures.