Emerging Interconnect Exploration for SRAM Application Using Nonconventional H-Tree and Center-Pin Access

Zhenlin Pei1, Mahta Mayahinia2, Hsiao-Hsuan Liu3, Mehdi Tahoori2, Shairfe Salahuddin4, Francky Catthoor4, Zsolt Tokei4, Chenyun Pan5
1The University of Texas at Arlington, 2Karlsruhe institute of technology (KIT), 3Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), 4IMEC, 5University of Texas at Arlington


Abstract

Abstract Many promising interconnect materials have been proposed to replace traditional Copper interconnects. In this paper, an efficient interconnect technology/memory co-design framework is developed by integrating a realistic cell library to enable a large design space exploration for various emerging interconnect technologies. To minimize the H-tree delay and energy overheads, we propose three H-tree technology options using four interconnect materials and benchmark them against their traditional Copper counterparts for optimal SRAM performance, such as the energy-delay-area product (EDAP) and energy-delay product (EDP). Various array- and interconnect-level design parameters are co-designed to quantify the graphene-based interconnects true potential for optimal performance.