A Paradigm Shift in Local Interconnect Technology Design in the Era of Nanoscale Multigate and Gate-All-Around Devices

As the technology scales down to the sub-10 nm nodes, the interconnect performance becomes primarily dominated by the resistance rather than the capacitance due to the ever-increasing size effects of copper and a higher input capacitance of the devices. The implications of this paradigm shift are discussed in this letter, and it is shown that the local interconnect technology needs to be reoptimized to rebalance the interconnect resistance and capacitance. One approach is to increase the interconnect width beyond half pitch without changing the interconnect pitch. For the 5-nm technology node with an aspect ratio of 3, the energy-delay product of vertical field-effect transistor circuits at the optimal relative width improve up 55%, compared with the circuits using an aspect ratio of 2 and an interconnect width of half pitch.