RF/Wireless Interconnect for Inter- and Intra-Chip Communications

Recent studies showed that conventional approaches being used to solve problems imposed by hard-wired metal interconnects will eventually encounter fundamental limits and may impede the advance of future ultralarge-scale integrated circuits (ULSIs). To surpass these fundamental limits, we introduce a novel RF/wireless interconnect concept for future interand intra-ULSI communications. Unlike the traditional “passive” metal interconnect, the “active” RF/wireless interconnect is based on low loss and dispersion-free microwave signal transmission, near-field capacitive coupling, and modern multiple-access algorithms. In this paper, we address issues relevant to the signal channeling of the RF/wireless interconnect and discuss its advantages in speed, signal integrity, and channel reconfiguration. The electronic overhead required in the RF/wireless-interconnect system and its compatibility with the future ULSI and MCM (multi-chip-module) will be discussed as well.