Efficient Passive Shielding of MWCNT Interconnects to Reduce Crosstalk Effects in Multiple-Valued Logic Circuits

In this paper, the effectiveness of passive shielding of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) bundle interconnects in reducing the crosstalk effects in carbon nanotube FET based ternary circuits is comprehensively investigated. In addition, based on the tighter sublithographic pitch of MWCNTs compared to Cu, we decrease the space between the carbon nanotube (CNT) interconnects to reduce the area overhead, while still having significantly higher effectiveness compared with Cu. The worst-case crosstalk delay and noise for passively shielded MWCNT and Cu wires at 14 nm technology are evaluated using comprehensive HSPICE simulations. The results indicate that the crosstalk delay and noise area in the efficient passively shielded MWCNT bundle interconnects are much smaller than the shielded Cu wires for ternary logic. Furthermore, the impacts of process variation on the crosstalk effects in these interconnects in ternary logic are investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. The results demonstrate the robustness of the passively shielded MWCNT bundles in ternary logic.