Planar Quasi-1D Nano-Interconnects Based on Selective Edge Passivated ZnO Nanoribbons

This work reports nano-interconnect properties in selective edge passivated zigzag ZnO nanoribbons (ZnONRs) by deploying the density functional theory (DFT) in conjugation with non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) framework. Here, structural, electronic, and transport properties of selective edge passivated ZnONRs are explored in-depth to analyze their potentials as nano-interconnect. The bandstructure and density of states (DoS) reveal that the hydrogenated ZnONRs are semiconducting with 0.49 eV band gap. However, the selective edge passivation results in dangling bonds at any/both edges resulting in metallic behavior. Further, the I-V characteristics reveal that the bare Zn-edge device (ZnO-H) has linearly increasing current while the bare O-edge (H-ZnO) and both bare edged ZnO (bare-ZnO) demonstrate negative differential resistance (NDR) characteristics. The current magnitude in pristine devices is insignificant as compared to devices with at least one bare edge due to their semiconducting nature. The parameters that affect the nano-interconnects performance at nanoscale dimensions such as quantum resistance ( $R_{Q}$ ), kinetic inductance ( $L_{K}$ ), and quantum capacitance ( $C_{Q}$ ) are reported as 6.46 k $\Omega$ , 35.08 nH/ $\mu$ m, and 3.36 nF/m. Furthermore, the performance of ZnO-H devices as nano-interconnects is investigated through various analyses such as delay, stability, frequency response, crosstalk, and line resistance effects. The obtained results reveal the ZnO-H device has enough potential to be used as nano-interconnects.