Self-collimated beams and photonic bandgap mirrors in photonic crystals are evaluated for applicability in an on-chip interconnect system. Simulations using the plane-wave expansion and finite-difference time-domain methods are utilized to design and evaluate the theoretical performance of these systems, called a virtual waveguide due to borderless confinement of the signal. The effect of systematic and random fabrication errors on the performance is characterized. Coupling efficiency is virtually unaffected by misalignment, but is found to be a strong function of the length of the waveguide and the frequency of light. Additional routing capabilities of sharp 90/spl deg/ turns and signal crossings with no crosstalk are demonstrated. Photonic crystal virtual waveguides are ideal structures for on-chip optical signal routing.