OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS part 3

ADVANCED ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECT SCHEMES

Recently, these electrical interconnect issues have garnered some attention from CMOS  designers.     The  first  step  towards  solving  these  problems  has  been  the introduction of materials with improved characteristics, such as copper wires with lower resistivity and low-k dielectrics to reduce capacitance and cross-talk [1].   Further all- electrical steps that may be taken include advanced equalization and optimally spaced repeater amplifiers, but both of these strategies consume power.   New architectures altogether may utilize asynchronous blocks, intimate 3D integration, guided RF using coplanar waveguides or free space RF [8], though these approaches will be challenged to meet the demanding requirements of an interconnect modality, especially in terms of power dissipation.

 ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTS

There  are  several  advantages  to  electrical  interconnects.      Electrical interconnection is the current dominant paradigm, so the technology for electrical interconnects is extremely well-understood and well-established.   The packaging of electrical interconnects is inexpensive, since connectors do not need precise alignment. No additional training of system designers is required, nor is there a need for the development of significantly new design tools or software.    (Of course, if it becomes necessary  to  model  many  details of  the  electrical  interconnect  system,  including  all impedance discontinuities and wave reflections, then the modeling may become quite challenging and require new tools.)   Finally, complicated interconnection networks are relatively simple to implement (compared with optics) [7].

Yet, for the various reasons described above, the problems with electrical interconnects may be insurmountable in the near future, at least at some length scales.