Impacts of Process and Temperature Variations on the Crosstalk Effects in Sub-10 nm Multilayer Graphene Nanoribbon Interconnects

In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the crosstalk in multilayer graphene nanoribbon (MLGNR) interconnects in the presence of process and temperature variations is performed. The variations of the crosstalk delay, crosstalk noise area, and power are investigated in the presence of process and temperature variations for passively shielded five-line MLGNRs carrying ternary signals in 10nm and 7nm technology nodes. Analyses are conducted considering all of the important sources of process variations using comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations. The results indicate that the impacts of the process and temperature variations on the crosstalk effects become more evident with the technology scaling from 10 to 7nm, mainly due to the reduction of the width and spacing of the interconnects. According to the results, the maximum deviation of the crosstalk delay, power consumption, and noise area are 160ps, 0.9μW and 16V.ps, respectively for 10nm passively shielded MLGNR interconnect in the presence of all sources of process variations. These values are in turn 335ps, 1.3μW, and 27V.ps in 7nm node. Moreover, the crosstalk effects are evaluated at various temperatures ranging from 200°K to 450°K. The maximum variations for the crosstalk delay and noise area for 10nm MLGNR interconnects are 57ps and 6V.ps at temperatures higher than room temperature and 6ps and 0.5V.ps for temperatures lower than the room temperature. These variations are in turn 118ps, 9V.ps, 12ps and 1V.ps for 7nm MLGNR interconnects. It is also observed that the variations of the resistance of the 500μm length MLGNR in the presence of temperature variations are on average 3.9 KΩ and 8.2 KΩ in 10nm and 7nm technologies, respectively.