Artificial Plasmonics for VLSI Interconnects: Bridging the Gap between Electronics and Optics

by Soumitra R. Joy, Pinaki Mazumder

Overview

Build the microchips of the future with this revolutionary new information transfer technology

Advancements in high-performance computing have continually demanded for progresses in disruptive technological research and innovations. Moore's Law has pushed the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology to pack MOS devices inside a chip at an exponential rate, thereby surpassing now eight billion transistors per cm2. This has concomitantly fueled the growth of multilayered on-chip interconnects comprising metallic and low dielectric materials.

VLSI Interconnect Technology with Artificial Plasmonics introduces a new method for improving chip performance by harnessing the power of information transfer among chips at terahertz frequency. This revolutionary new electromagnetic wave engineering, called a spoof surface plasmon polariton, adapts the principles of VLSI and terahertz interconnect technology along with the artificial plasmonics to transfer huge quantities of data at vastly improved speeds. It constitutes a potentially decisive contribution to the pursuit of faster and more capacious VLSI chips.

In VLSI Interconnect Technology with Artificial Plasmonics, readers will also find:

• A cutting-edge new approach supported by pioneering research
• Detailed discussion of essential components related to the development of THz interconnect technology, including theory, modeling, simulation, and validation
• Roadmap to future technological development in the branch of artificial plasmonics

VLSI Interconnect Technology with Artificial Plasmonics is ideal for engineers, researchers, and scientists working in electronics, electromagnetics, and optics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781394289950
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/16/2025
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Soumitra R. Joy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Before joining academia, he served as a device reliability engineer at Intel Corporation for four years. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, and is recognized for his research in artificial plasmonics and semiconductor devices.

Pinaki Mazumder, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. He is a Fellow of both the IEEE and AAAS and internationally recognized for his research in the diverse aspects of VLSI circuits and systemsdesign

Table of Contents

Contributors xv 

Foreword  xvii

Preface  xix

Acknowledgments  xxi

Acronyms xxiii

Introduction xxv

1 Prospects and Pitfalls of Modern Interconnect Technologies 1

1.1 Overview and Motivation 2

1.2 Communications challenges: Human-level vs Machine-level 6

1.3 Modes of Interconnects: a technology gap 7

1.4 Innovations in interconnect frontier 10

1.5 Scaling issue of system level interconnect 24

1.6 Optical Interconnect: evolution towards chip-scale communication 34

1.7 Complexity and Dilemma in data transfer 50

1.8 Research on spoof plasmon wave: towards CMOS compatibility 64

1.9 Summary of the chapter 71

2 Spoof plasmonics: origin and state-of-the-art development 73

2.1 Slow wave structure: a historical perspective 74

2.2 Surface plasmon polariton in metal 81

2.3 Surface plasmon polariton: explanation through Drude’s model 86

2.4 SSPP in planar geometry 91

2.5 SSPP based THz circuits: Research in Mazumder Laboratory 104

2.6 Particle-motion control by SSPP waveguide 128

2.7 Recent advances in Spoof plasmonics 129

2.8 Conclusion 133

3 Fundamental Electrodynamics of Spoof Plasmonic Mode 135

3.1 Baleen Whales: what they teach us on novel communication 136

3.2 Plasmonics aided high speed VLSI communication 139

3.3 A universal theoretical framework for Spoof Plasmonics 145

3.4 Electrodynamics of spoof plasmon in finite structure 157

3.5 Modal Analysis of Spoof Plasmon 161

Assumption II: TM mode prevalence 167

3.6 Thin film of SSPP 172

3.7 Properties of confined modes 176

3.8 Summary of the chapter 180

4 Information Capacity of Spoof Plasmonic Interconnect 183

4.1 The 1858 Transatlantic telegraph: lessons from a failed project 184

4.2 Data transfer through noisy channel: condition the signal, don’t ‘brute-force’ 186

4.3 Challenges in millimeter-Scale communication: A call for innovation beyond Shannon’s paradigm 188

4.4 Millimeters-scale communication: its growing relevance in datadriven world  190

4.5 A Growing Industry Investment in Millimeter-Scale Chip Packaging 192

4.6 Quest for a Fundamentally Different Propagation Mode for Millimeter-Scale Packaging 195

4.7 Limitations of standard interconnect technologies 196

4.8 Authors’ contribution to the field of interconnect design 197

4.9 Bandwidth in Cross-talk mediated SSPP channels 200

4.10 Traveling length of SSPP mode in lossy metal 208

4.11 Information capacity in the limit of thermal noise  211

4.12 SSPP interconnect in comparison with others: the benefit of minimized interference 217

4.12.1 Cross-talk in optical interconnect 217

4.12.2 Cross-talk in electrical interconnects 221

4.12.3 Cross-talk in Spoof Plasmon Interconnects 224

4.13 Dual Mode in spoof plasmon waveguide 228

4.14 Summary 230

5 Augmented Bandwidth by Spoof Plasmonics 231

5.1 Introduction 232

5.2 Background studies: severity of cross-talk 233

5.3 Conventional Strategies for Crosstalk reduction 234

5.4 Authors’ contribution: dealing with crosstalk in data-bus 239

5.5 Hybrid-SSPP mode: Theory and Property analysis 252

SSPP channels  263

5.6 Optimal Design technique for Hybrid-SSPP waveguide for baseband communication 267

5.7 Experimental characterizations of SSPP data-bus 269

5.8 Mechanism for bandwidth augmentation 275

5.9 How Spoof Plasmon Advances the Engineering of Interconnect 292

5.10 Summary 297

6 Signal Modulation by Spoof Plasmonics 299

6.1 Introduction 300

6.2 Background studies: design of modulator 302

6.3 Authors’ contribution in the field of controlling spoof plasmon 304

6.4 Transmission spectra of homogeneous and heterogeneous structures 305

6.5 SSPP scattering in heterogeneous structures 310

6.6 Q-factor and enhanced radiation rate 316

6.7 Dynamic switching of SSPP transmission property 317

6.8 Experimental Considerations and Signal Modulation 338

6.9 Summary 349

7 Process variation effect on Spoof Plasmonic interconnect: Compensations 353

7.1 Introduction 354

7.2 Background studies: Process variation in interconnects 355

7.3 Author’s contribution in the field of spoof plasmon signal restoration 356

7.4 Frequency response of SSPP channel 357

7.5 Performance Loss for Structural Imperfections 361

7.6 Mitigation of Performance degradation 368

7.7 Summary 373

8 Future Research Avenues for Spoof Plasmonic Interconnects 375

8.1 Introduction 376

8.2 New Research Frontiers for Spoof Plasmonic Interconnect 378

8.3 Summary of the chapter 388