Performance Characterization of Advanced Interconnects on High Speed VLSI Circuits

Abstract

A full procedure to measure and simulate or predict high speed performance of single or coupled long-lossy IC interconnects is presented. Propagation constant, characteristic impedance and R, L, C, G matrix parameters are extracted from measurements and compared to values obtained by EM modeling. Next, performance in terms of delays, distortion or crosstalk of high speed signals are studied : impacts of low-K dielectrics and Al-Cu or Cu-CMP processes are shown.