Development of a random-walk algorithm for IC-interconnect analysis: 2D TE benchmarks, materially homogeneous domains

Fundamentally, the electrical properties of advanced multi-level IC interconnects must be described with Maxwell´s equations. As an initial step towards developing an efficient methodology for electromagnetic analysis of IC interconnects, we have defined an entirely new numerical floating RW (Random-Walk) algorithm. The algorithm describes TE-mode (Transverse Electric) propagation within materially homogeneous 2D domains. The major difficulty of deriving simple, analytical surface Green´s functions has been resolved by means of iterative perturbation theory. Square-domain insulator and conductor benchmark test problems yielded a mean absolute error of 0.004+0.0024i within a computed (normalized) solution range [0.0,1.0-0.3i]. Operation frequencies were 400 GHz and 1.0 GHz, for respective insulator and conductor problem sizes of 100 μm and 10 μm