Interconnect-Driven Nanoelectronic Circuits

The future of the hundred billion dollar semiconductor industry relies on novel nanoelectronic devices and circuits as well as new design approaches. In this paper, a novel interconnect-driven design method is proposed to build practical nanoelectronic circuits using nickel silicide (NiSi) nanowires. This interconnect-driven approach is to design nanoelectronic circuits by selecting efficient interconnect solution first, and then determining the appropriate logic style and material for the circuit based on the interconnect. By focusing on the interconnect bottleneck, rather than devices per se, this proposed solution would significantly improve the feasibility and overall performance of the nanoelectronic circuit. The interconnect-driven approach and NiSi nanowire are a perfect match. Using the interconnect-driven approach, NiSi nanowire and NiSi/Si transistors can form efficient interconnects, pseudo logics and hybrid circuits. This complete interconnect/circuit solution can be achieved by integrating both active devices and high-performance interconnects in a single NiSi nanowire building block.