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Duty Cycle and Frequency Effects of Pulsed-DC Currents on Electromigration-Induced Stress in Al Interconnects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Richard Frankovic  and
Gary H. Bernstein
Richard Frankovic
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, and J. Joseph Clement, Digital Equipment Corp., 77 Reed Road, Hudson, MA 01749
Gary H. Bernstein
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, and J. Joseph Clement, Digital Equipment Corp., 77 Reed Road, Hudson, MA 01749
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Abstract

The effects of the duty cycle and frequency of a pulsed-current stress on the critical length-current density product, (jlc) were measured using edge-displacement techniques. In our study, Al edge-displacement segments were stressed at a temperature of 200 °C and at peak pulsed-dc current densities below 6×105 A/cm2 in a nitrogen ambient. jlc was measured for duty cycles of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% at 100 kHz, and for 50% duty cycle at lower frequencies. jlc was observed to increase with decreasing duty cycle and increasing frequency. We measured a 2.6-fold increase in jlc for the 25% duty cycle at 100 kHz as compared to dc. We have used the vacancy supersaturation model to predict the jlc enhancement for lower duty cycle operation.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 428: Symposium L – Materials Reliability in Microelectronics VI , 1996 , 109
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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