Performance improvement in side contact multilayer graphene nanoribbon interconnects using intercalated doping

Abstract

In this paper, we report the performance improvement obtained in side-contact multilayer Graphene nanoribbon (SC-MLGNR) interconnects by using intercalated AsF5. We compare it with that of traditional Cu interconnects as well as undoped (or neutral) SC-MLGNRs for both local/intermediate and global interconnect applications, at 6 nm technology node. We present a qualitative analysis of the effect of intercalation doping on the equivalent circuit parameters of SC-MLGNRs using a driver-load interconnect equivalent circuit. For our analysis, we have considered three interconnect performance metrics: delay, energy-delay product (EDP), and bandwidth density (BWD). We observe that for global interconnects of length 1000 μm the EDP of optimized AsF5-intercalated SC-MLGNRs reduces by 50% while its BWD increases by 1.9× when compared to Cu. Similarly, for interconnect lengths of 500 μm (local/intermediate level interconnects), improvement in EDP and BWD has been 60.13% and 2.4×, respectively as compared to Cu. In our analysis, interconnect thickness is optimized to obtain the lowest delay and EDP along with the highest bandwidth density for both local/intermediate and global interconnects.