Lithium-Intercalated Graphene Interconnects: Prospects for On-Chip Applications

This paper establishes the importance of the lithium (Li) intercalation in multilayer graphene nanoribbon (MLGNR) interconnects for obtaining superior performance than conventional copper (Cu) on-chip interconnects. For the first time, we report performance analysis of Li-intercalated MLGNRs for local interconnect applications. In that, interconnect thickness is optimized for obtaining lowest delay and energy-delay-product (EDP). At 12 μm interconnect length, our optimized Li-intercalated MLGNRs exhibit (≈ 22.9 ps)1.9x and 4.1x lower delay and EDP, respectively, when compared to Cu. Even in presence of edge roughness, they exhibit (≈ 31.8 ps)1.37x and 2.5x lower delay and EDP, respectively, when compared to Cu. Our analysis quantitatively proves the potential of Li-intercalated MLGNRs for local interconnect applications.