Interconnect coupling noise in CMOS VLSI circuits

AbstmctInterconnect between a CMOS driver and receiver can be modeled as a lossy transmission line in high speed CMOS VLSI circuits as transition times become comparable to or lass than the time of flight delay of the signal through the low resistivity interconnect. In this paper, closed form expressions for the coupling noise between adjacent interconnect are presented to estimate the coupling noise voltage on a quiet line. These expressions are based on an assumption that the interconnections are loosely coupled, where the effect of the coupling noise on the waveform of the active line is small and can be neglected. It is demonstrated that the output impedance of the CMOS driver should preferably be comparable to the interconnect impedance in order to reduce the propagation delay of the CMOS driver stage.