Transient analysis of crosstalk coupling between high-speed carbon nanotube interconnects

The scaling of copper wires and the increase in signal switching speed produce transient crosstalk coupling between interconnect lines, which causes overshoots and additional time delay. Nano-interconnects made by single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles can be good candidates for VLSI circuits. In this paper SWCNT bundles are simulated by means of the multiconductor transmission line (MTL) model and the equivalent single conductor (ESC) one, which is derived by applying a concurrent multiscale approach. The output voltages to fast input step voltages are predicted considering a different number of conductive tubes in the bundles and different values of the load capacitance. The sensitivity analysis of the crosstalk effects is performed. The 50% time delay of the output responses is computed for the considered nano-interconnect configurations. The results obtained by applying the MTL model and the simplified ESC approach are in good agreement.