S-parameter-measurement-based high-speed signal transient characterizationof VLSI interconnects on SiO2-Si substrate

A new s-parameter-based signal transient characterization method for very l arge scale integrated (VLSI) interconnects is presented. The technique can provide very accurate signal integrity verification of an integrated circui t (IC) interconnect line since its s-parameters is composed of all the freq uency-variant transmission line characteristics over a broad frequency band . In order to demonstrate the technique, test patterns are designed and fab ricated by using a 0.35 mu m complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process, The time-domain signal transient characteristics for the test pat terns are then examined by using the s-parameters over a 50 MHz to 20 GHz f requency range. The signal delay and the waveform distortion presented in t he interconnect lines based on the proposed method are compared with the ex isting interconnect models. Using the experimental characterizations of the test patterns, it is shown that the silicon substrate effect and frequency -variant transmission line characteristics of IC interconnects can be very crucial.