High-speed and low-power interconnect technology for sub-quarter-micron ASIC´s

The optimum interconnect structure for high-speed and low-power sub-quarter-micron Application Specified Integrated Circuits (ASIC´s) is investigated. High-speed and low-power scaling rules for the interconnect structures are extracted statistically from the wiring data in actual ASIC´s. Adopting the scaling rule for a 0.25-μm ASIC enables us to reduce the gate delay by 23% and the gate power by 31% compared to conventional (horizontal only) scaling rule. A low-dielectric-constant interlayer insulator further reduces both the gate delay and power by reducing wiring capacitance. A 0.25-μm interconnect structure was fabricated by adopting the “high-speed and low-power interconnect scaling rule” and using organic spin-on-glass (SOG) as a low-dielectric-constant interlayer insulator. According to equivalent-circuit calculation using the measured interconnect parameters, the gate delay was reduced by 39% and the gate power was reduced by 47% compared to a conventional interconnect structure