An analysis of the effect of wire resistance on circuit level performance at the 45-nm technology node

The paper presents a method for assessing the impact of interconnects on dynamic system level performance. The method is applied to the analysis of the impact of interconnect parasitic resistance and capacitance on the performance of different circuit types at the 45-nm technology node. It is observed that the interconnect capacitance dominates circuit performance at short interconnect lengths. The interconnect resistance influences low-power (high-speed) circuit speed only for critical wire lengths longer than 360 μm (180 μm). Within the investigated interconnect lengths, the interconnect resistance has virtually no impact on the switching energy of the test circuit. The results indicate that for low-power circuits, the high interconnect resistance is not a serious issue at the 45-nm technology node.