On thermal effects in deep sub-micron VLSI interconnects

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the thermal effects in advanced high performance interconnect systems arising due to self-heating under various circuit conditions, including electrostatic discharge. Technology (Cu, low-k etc) and scaling effects on the thermal characteristics of the interconnects, and on their electromigration reliability has been analyzed simultaneously, which will have important implications for providing robust and aggressive deep sub-micron interconnect design guidelines. Furthermore, the impact of these thermal effects on the design (driver sizing) and optimization of the interconnect length between repeaters at the upper-level signal lines are investigated.