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The Effects of Accelerated Stress Conditions on Electromigration Failure Kinetics and Void Morphology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Abstract
Accelerated life testing has long been used to measure the electromigration reliability of integrated circuit (IC) metallization systems. In order to establish or verify electromigration design rules for IC products the measured data is extrapolated over a wide range of operating conditions using phenomenological models. These models assume that the components of the diffusional flux, thermal stress and resulting void morphology are independent of test/operating condition. In this paper, electromigration void morphology and failure criteria are studied over a range of stress conditions and microstructures for non-layered AlCu and AlCuSi metallurgies. The failure criteria, defined as the average change in conductor resistance prior to an open circuit condition, was strongly dependent on test current density. Moreover, the nature of the relationship between failure criteria and current density was governed by the linewidth (W) relative to the median grain size (D50). This dependence can be explained qualitatively in terms of the Blech Effect.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996
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