Transient Signal Distortion in Silicon-Based Interconnects over Thin-Film Metal Ground Layers

This paper studies the effect of the embedded thin-film metallization layer, normally designed as ground plane, on the transient characteristics of pulse propagation in silicon-based multilayer interconnects. The spectral domain approach (SDA) and FFT are used to analyze an on-chip thin-film microstrip line (TFMSL) structure. It is found that such thin-film metallization can excite the slow wave. And the thickness factor has great influences on the signal distortion