Modeling and Analysis of Metal Interconnect Resistance of Power IC's

The influence of metal interconnect resistance becomes increasingly critical as the power IC technology continues to advance. In this paper, we report a multilayer quasi-3D finite element analysis (FEA) approach to model the influence of metal interconnect resistance of power IC's. We have used this FEA tool to analyze and optimize a large number of metal interconnect designs. Three case studies will be reported in this paper: 1) optimization of single-layer metal interconnect design; 2) analysis of two-layer metal interconnect design, and 3) novel three-layer metal interconnect designs. The modeling results are compared to measured device data for model validation. Reasonable agreement was observed. Design guidelines were generated based on the modeling results.