Impact of MOL/BEOL Air-Spacer on Parasitic Capacitance and Circuit Performance at 3 nm Node

Abstract

Impact of air-spacer at MOL and BEOL on circuit performance at 3nm technology node is studied. Our modeling results show that by introducing air-spacer at MOL and BEOL, parasitic capacitance can be reduced by 18% and circuit performance as simulated on a 31-stage ring oscillator can be improved by 6%. Other advanced parasitic improvement technologies, such as Ruthenium, also show similar performance improvement. Finally, we show that best circuit performance is achieved when these 2 technologies are combined, yielding to a circuit performance boost of 16%.