Effect of Driver Size and Number of Shells on Propagation Delay in MWCNT Interconnects

This paper analyzes the effect of driver size and number of shells on propagation delay for Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) interconnect at 22nm technology node. An equivalent circuit model of MWCNT is used for estimation and analysis of propagation delay. The delay through MWCNT and Cu interconnects are compared for various driver sizes and number of MWCNT shells. The SPICE simulation results show that the MWCNT interconnect has lower propagation delay than Cu interconnects. The delay ratio of MWCNT to Cu decreases with increase in length for different driver size and number of MWCNT shells. However, the delay ratio increases with reduction in number of MWCNT shells. MWCNT is considered to be potential alternative to copper interconnects in future. MWCNT provides significant improvement in propagation delay performance over Copper for long (global) interconnects.