A Flexible Framework Based on Finite-Element Method for Capacitance Extraction of 3-Dimensional Interconnects

This paper proposed a capacitance extraction framework based on finite-element methods (FEM) to obtain the capacitance of three-dimensional (3-D) interconnect structures with multi-layer dielectrics. The proposed framework is demonstrated through its application to various 3-D interconnect configurations, revealing an error of no more than 8.03 % when compared to the commercial software Q3D, and 3.44 % compared to published papers. Notably, this framework exhibits enhanced flexibility in modeling and meshing, leading to a 1.5 % decrease in CPU time and a 40.7 % reduction in memory consumption compared to Q3D by optimizing the meshing strategy. Meanwhile, the proposed approach is based on the open-source software Gmsh and GetDP, ensuring high portability. Consequently, it can be adapted to various 3D interconnect structures, offering significant potential in designing very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) and enabling highly accurate parasitic extraction in post-layout simulations.