ABSTRACT
The Integrated circuits (ICs) mainly consist of transistors and interconnects. The continuous scaling of IC processes also introduces changes in the metal stack. The increased aspect ratio leads to an increased wire–to–wire capacitance, compared to wire–to–ground capacitance, which will increase power consumption. The simplest model of a wire is the microstrip, that is a metal strip on top of a ground plane. The effect of any signal on a neighboring wire is then treated by calculating the crosstalk from each neighboring wire to the actual one, and add this voltage to the voltage on the actual wire. The fact that power consumption depends on signal activity leads to severe difficulties in power prediction and, therefore, in power optimization. The reduced voltage swing is often an effective way to save power in logic. The power consumption related to on–chip and off–chip communication is substantial. The most important properties of wires and their design, including the impact of drivers, receivers, and repeaters.
