The state of the art in interconnect simulation

Until recently, most interconnect models took into account capacitances and resistances only. With operating frequencies in the GHz regime, the effect of the magnetic field can no longer be neglected. Inductances, skin effect, and transmission line behavior must be considered carefully. For many complicated topographies, where lumped or one-dimensional distributed models do not reach the required accuracy, three dimensional quasi-static or even full-wave models are required. Since the amount of power dissipated in the interconnect structures is increasing, thermal interconnect modeling is also gaining importance, especially for silicon-on-insulator chips and low k materials. We demonstrate how simulation tools are keeping pace with these demands