Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Computational Electronics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-018-01297-w Efect of temperature on the performance analysis of MLGNR interconnects Tajinder Kaur 1  · Mayank Kumar Rai 1  · Rajesh Khanna 1 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Multi-layer graphene nanoribbons (MLGNR) have been proposed as a possible interconnect material. Based on an equivalent single-conductor model of an intercalation-doped MLGNR (ID-MLGNR) interconnect, along with mixed carbon-nanotube bundle (MCB) interconnects, a comparative temperature-dependent study is performed with regard to their distributed circuit parameters and signal transmission performance in terms of delay, power dissipation, and power–delay product (PDP) at the global domain of interconnects. A similar analysis is carried out for copper (Cu) interconnects, and the results are compared with ID-MLGNR and MCB interconnects at the 14-nm technology node. Four diferent structures of MCB (MCBs 1–4), with and without tunneling efects, are considered here. The SPICE simulation results reveal that for 1-mm-long intercon- nects, stage-2 AsF 5 ID-MLGNR with nearly specular edges have lower delay, power dissipation, and PDP in comparison to MCBs (1–4) with tunneling efects and conventional Cu interconnects over a temperature range of 300 to 500 K. With regard to propagation delay and power dissipation, it has also been shown that MCB interconnects with non-consideration of tunneling efects outperform MCB interconnects with tunneling efects. Additionally, among the MCB (1–4) structures, MCB-1 consistently has lower delay within a temperature range from 300 to 500 K. Moreover, an average improvement in relative delay of 23.78% and 37.66% is observed for ID-MLGNR interconnects in comparison with the best delay structure of MCBs, i.e. MCB-1, and Cu interconnects, respectively, over a temperature range of 300 to 500 K. It is proposed that, in the context of reduced propagation delay, power dissipation, and PDP, ID-MLGNR interconnects hold greater promise than MCB and Cu interconnects. Keywords MLGNR · Mixed carbon-nanotube bundle (MCB) · Power dissipation · Equivalent single-conductor (ESC) model · VLSI-interconnects 1 Introduction With the continuous scaling of technology in the deep sub- micron (DSM) region, there has been a signifcant increase in both device density and current density, which criti- cally requires a dimensional reduction in interconnect size for high-performance integrated circuits (ICs). When the reduction in interconnect dimensions approaches the mean free path (MFP), it leads to grain boundaries, surface scat- tering, difusive sur face scattering, and electromigration in existing materials (Cu) used for interconnects [1]. As a result, interconnect resistivity increases, causing degradation of the performance of interconnects in terms of propaga- tion delay, power dissipation [2], and crosstalk [3]. Hence, to alleviate this problem, a new alternative is required. In contrast to traditional interconnect material (Cu) with an MFP of ~ 40 nm [1], carbon-nanotubes (CNT) and graphene nanoribbons (GNR) with a large MFP (~ 1 μm) are two recently proposed carbon nanomaterials consisting of one of the physically available carbon allotropes, graphene [4]. Gra- phene has garnered considerable attention in recent years as a potential alternative for interconnects in the developments of next-generation ICs, as it exhibits outstanding physical properties [5]. In addition, among these two carbon-based * Mayank Kumar Rai mkrai@thapar.edu Tajinder Kaur tajinder.kaur@thapar.edu Rajesh Khanna rkhanna@thapar.edu 1 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Punjab 147004, India