Performance analysis of single-walled carbon nanotube bundle interconnects for three-dimensional integration applications

Compact equivalent circuit models for single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles are described, and the performance of SWCNT bundle interconnects is evaluated and compared with traditional Cu interconnects at different interconnect levels for through-silicon-via-based three-dimensional integration. It is shown that at local level, carbon nanotube bundle interconnects exhibit lower signal delay and smaller optimal wire size. At intermediate and global levels, delay improvement becomes more significant with technology scaling and increasing wire lengths. For 1 mm intermediate and 10 mm global level interconnects, the delay of SWCNT bundles can reach 45.49 and 51.84% of that of Cu wires, respectively.