Performance comparison between carbon nanotube and copper interconnects for GSI

The performances of minimum-size copper and carbon nanotube interconnects are compared for various ITRS generations. Results offer important guidance regarding the nature of carbon nanotube technology development needed for improving interconnect performance. Since wave propagation is slow in a single nanotube, nanotube-bundles with larger wave speeds must be used. At the 45nm node (year 2010), the performance enhancement that can be achieved by using nanotube-bundles is negligible, and at the 22nm node (year 2016) it can be as large as 30% and 80% if carbon nanotubes with electron mean free paths of 5μm and 10μm, respectively, can be fabricated.