Nanofibers for RF and Beyond

In the age of Moore´s Law, as the dimensions of integrated circuits are constantly pushed to smaller length scales, it is common to focus on the shrinking gate lengths in transistors rather than the elaborate, multilayered scaffold of interconnects that sits on top of the transistors. However, as the dimensions of these systems approach a few nanometers, interconnects in general and power consumption by interconnects in particular play prominent roles in system design and optimization. Integrated circuits rely on interconnects to distribute high-speed signals among the various system functions on a chip. The ongoing need for improvement and optimization of interconnects is emphasized by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors [1]. In order to reduce power consumption by interconnects, alternative approaches such as wireless and optoelectronic chip-to-chip communication have been proposed.