Embedded ground planes using sidewall insulators for high frequency interconnections in integrated circuits

Cross-talk disturbance and signal delay from interconnections are intensifying as dimensions reduce and circuit frequencies increase, significantly impacting the performance of integrated circuits. A new structure called an embedded ground plane with sidewall insulators can be used to control the impedance and reduce cross talk and dispersion of signals. The S-parameters of 0.3 /spl mu/m lines with ground planes were measured up to 18 GHz and used to obtain the propagation function. The parasitics from the pads was eliminated using a new dc-embedding technique based on T-matrices. The resulting transmission line transfer function is then used to simulate the pulse response of interconnections using Fourier transforms.<>