Information theoretic capacity analysis of single-walled carbon nanotube bundle VLSI interconnects

Conventional approach of copper interconnects has become a major bottleneck for VLSI system performance due to larger delay and increased susceptibility to noise in deep sub-micrometer (DSM) technology. Bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) have been proposed as a possible replacement for copper interconnect due to their outstanding conductivity and current-carrying capabilities. This paper presents the signal and data carrying capacity of SWCNT interconnects from information theoretic point of view. Results show SWCNT bundle data bus provides better data handling capacity compared to an 8-bit-wide 0.1-¿m Cu interconnect technology for long (global and intermediate levels) interconnects. It also shows that maximum data transfer rate for SWCNT bundle data bus occurs at around 60 GHz for intermediate and global level interconnects which clearly makes it suitable for future high-speed on-chip interconnect applications.