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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Effects of finite source material, in multilevel interconnect systems, on reliability has been investigated. Two types of novel test structures were used in this study: 1] asymmetrical design structure in width and thickness for the top and bottom conductor layers, 2] symmetrical design structure in width and thickness for the top and bottom conductor layers. The results of the asymmetric contact and via chains studies showed that the electromigration lifetimes were not effected by the difference in the magnitude of the finite source material. The electromigration lifetimes of the symmetrical via structure, in width and thickness for the top and bottom conductor layers, exhibited a strong dependence on the finite source material. A failure model is proposed to explain the effect of finite source material on electromigration performance in such interconnect systems.