EE Times Covers ICCAD Paper on Carbon Nanotube Interconnects

Navin Srivastava, PhD candidate at the University of California at Santa Barbara, presented research on "realistic" RLC (resistance, inductance, capacitance) modeling of carbon nanotubes. Realizing these models is a first step toward building CAD tools for such devices, he said.

Previous modeling efforts, Srivastava said, did not provide realistic RLC calculations for bundled carbon-nanotube interconnects, did not allow for imperfect contacts, and used unrealistic drivers and loads. A "fair comparison" to copper, he said, shows that carbon-nanotube bundled interconnects don't provide much performance improvement at the local level, but do show a significant improvement for long, global interconnects.