ABSTRACT

Integrated circuits have two major components: semiconducting devices, such as diodes, or transistors, and interconnects. Interconnects refer the physical connecting medium made of thin metal films between several electrical nodes in a semiconducting chip. The purpose of the interconnects is to transmit signals from one point to another without any distortion. Depending on the length of the interconnects, they are classified into three types: (1) global interconnect (length > 100 μm), (2) semiglobal or intermediate interconnect (10 μm > length > 100 μm), and (3) local interconnect (length < 10 μm).