Interconnect structures for high-speed long-distance signal transmission [LSI interconnects]

This paper studies interconnect structures for long-distance signal transmission that exploit transmission line effects. We take up two basic structures; micro-strip and coplanar lines, and examine the attenuation properties and inductive coupling noise. We experimentally reveal the relationship between interconnect length and required interconnect resource in 35 nm and 130 nm technologies. We can see that the interconnect size required for 10 mm signal transmission is somewhat larger than that of the current top-metal interconnects.