High frequency simulation and characterization of advanced copper interconnects

In this paper, we evaluate the impact of copper on high frequency (HF) behavior for deep submicron interconnects. In particular, we compare aluminum vs. copper structures and study the association of copper with low-k dielectrics. Firstly, we use electromagnetic (EM) and electrical simulations to determine the necessary level of modeling. As a second step, we perform time domain characterization of dedicated devices. In this study, we measure the effective benefits in terms of crosstalk when combining copper and low-k.