Benchmark methodology of interconnect capacitance simulation using inter-digitated capacitors

High-frequency capacitance measurement of inter-digitated metal-oxide-metal capacitors (MOMCAP) is used to benchmark interconnect capacitance simulation results from a computer-aided design (CAD) tool. Three components of interconnect capacitance, total capacitance (C/sub tot/), layer-to-layer capacitance (C/sub g/) and line-to-line capacitance (C/sub c/) are measured efficiently from a single test structure for the benchmark. Metal width, metal height and dielectric thickness of the capacitors are also characterized from the same chip from which the capacitances are measured. An input file for a CAD tool was generated based on this interconnect geometry characterization, and the three components of interconnect capacitance were extracted. The need to build an accurate input file for a CAD tool is demonstrated through the benchmark results.