Recent Progress and Challenges Regarding Carbon Nanotube On-Chip Interconnects

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to Micromachines. Please see the suggested revisions listed below. Good luck.

 

Abstract

Line 16 Grammar “nanotubes have attracted”

 

Intro

29        Grammar “have”

47        Grammar “interconnects are”

49        Define IMEC here. Grammar “was to replace”

Figure 1 Please describe Figures 1a, 1b, and 1c in this caption

63        Grammar “seeking a candidate”

64        Tense “ studied”

66        Tense “explored”

67        Tense “expanded”

69        Plural “interconnects”

70        Define TSMC here.

72        Plural “nanotubes are”

73        Grammar “do to their long”

75        Grammar “a great challenge”

 

Chapter 2

87        Grammar “interconnects are the”

91        Grammar “interconnects have a length greater than”

Figure 3 Please include scale bars on Figure 3a and 3b.

131      Grammar “crosstalk greatly increase”

134      Grammar “nanotubes”

136      Grammar “nanotubes”

138      Grammar “nodes”

162      Grammar “improved compared to”

188      Grammar “CNTs not only improve latency”

199      Grammar “They carry power”

213      Grammar “and an optimized RC delay”

Figure 5 Please consider explaining specifically in the caption what each of the 5a-5g images are showing. Consider describing a-g in the text as well. Explain why you are showing so many images.

Figure 6 Consider installing a scale bar to indicate the size of the modeled samples. For example, what is the distance from bottom to top?

Figure 7 Please label the materials in the photos and highlight the damage in Figure 7b.

 

Chapter 3

265      Grammar. TSV should be plural, TSVs.

274      Grammar “compared to the horizontal”

275      Grammar “growing CNTs directly in”

277      Grammar “combined structures”

282      Grammar “temperatures”. State the 550 degree temperature units, C, F, or K.

283      Grammar “Experiments show that”

298      Grammar “TSVs have”

300      Grammar “have been investigated”

Figure 9 Increase the clarity of the scale bars. Describe the contents of each of the Figures a-e.

 

Conclusion

378      Grammar “we reviewed”

380      “CNTs have good”

388-389 Combine to form one sentence. Sentence should not begin with “And”.

391      “chirality”, not “charity”

395-397 Incomplete sentence. Please correct.

Author Response

Please see the attchment. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

In this work, the authors review carbon nanotube-based interconnects from the perspective of different interconnect lengths and through-silicon-via applications. The manuscript is clear and detailed, the conclusions are in accordance with the presented literature, therefore, it can be considered for publication if the following major revision is considered:

 

-        As the authors review the advantages, recent developments, and dilemmas of carbon nanotube-based interconnects, a table or a scheme should be presented to became easier to the reader understand the interest of such interconnects.

-        Also, a table with the properties (conductivity, resistivity, thermal conductivity, dielectric constant,….) of these carbon nanotube-based interconnects should be presented. Please add the characteristics of other materials as copper  in similar conditions for comparison.

-        In the conclusions, the authors state that “Carbon nanotubes exhibit  different properties at different length stages.”, please indicate a table or graph demonstrating such conclusion. This will be nice for the readers.

Author Response

Please see the attachment. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The first criticism is that the literature review is not comprehensive enough. It should be improved while clearly mentioning the contribution of the present work at the end of section 1. Please, make sure that your references are cited in an orderly manner. For instance, [18] is not correctly numbered in the caption of Figure 2.

The number of references is sufficient, but the discussion is somewhat simplistic even though CNTs are a hot topic. You should consider taking a look at other similar works and extending the analysis significantly. A timeline comprising the evolution of CNT technology applied in interconnects or even a flowchart would be quite useful to the reader.

[R1] Wei, X., Li, S., Wang, W., Zhang, X., Zhou, W., Xie, S., & Liu, H. (2022). Recent Advances in Structure Separation of Single‐Wall Carbon Nanotubes and Their Application in Optics, Electronics, and Optoelectronics. Advanced Science, 2200054

[R2] Jain, N., Gupta, E., & Kanu, N. J. (2022). Plethora of Carbon nanotubes applications in various fields–A state-of-the-art-review. Smart Science, 10(1), 1-24.

[R3] Kumari B, Pandranki S, Sharma R, Sahoo M. Thermal-Aware Modeling and Analysis of Cu-Mixed CNT Nanocomposite Interconnects. IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology. 2022 Mar 22;21:163-71.

There is no discussion of fault diagnosis techniques applied to CNT interconnects as well. And what about the thermal analysis and modeling as associated with heat dissipation? Please, elaborate.

Author Response

Please see the attachment. Thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript has been improved considering the suggestions and, therefore, I can recommend this work for publication