Performance predictions of prospective air gap architectures for the 22 nm node

With technological developments towards 22 nm node ICs, integration and process issues will be critical for signal propagation on interconnects. Air gap architecture, as a potential alternative to porous dielectrics, is thus analyzed for two SiO₂ sacrificial approaches. Thanks to electromagnetic and time-domain simulations, extraction of barrier properties and dimensions limits regarding capacitance, delay and crosstalk parameters is realized, leading to the proposal of a specific stack as a global solution to this problematic.