Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T01:59:44.346Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Electromigration Reliability of Electroplated Gold Interconnects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2014

Steve H. Kilgore  and
Dieter K. Schroder
Steve H. Kilgore
Affiliation:
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Tempe, AZ 85284, USA Material Science and Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Dieter K. Schroder
Affiliation:
Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Get access

Abstract

The electromigration lifetimes of a very large quantity of passivated electroplated Au interconnects were measured utilizing high-resolution in-situ resistance monitoring equipment. Application of moderate accelerated stress conditions with current density limited to 2 MA/cm2 and oven temperatures in the range of 300°C to 375°C prevented large Joule-heated temperature gradients and electrical overstress failures. A Joule-heated Au film temperature increase of 10°C on average was determined from measured temperature coefficients of resistance (TCRs). A failure criterion of 50% resistance degradation was selected to avoid thermal runaway and catastrophic open circuit failures. All Au lifetime distributions followed log-normal statistics. An activation energy of 0.80 ± 0.05 eV was measured from constant-current electromigration tests at multiple temperatures. A current density exponent of 1.91 ± 0.03 was extracted from multiple current densities at a single constant temperature.

Keywords

electromigrationAumetallic conductor
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1692: Symposium CC – New Materials and Processes for Interconnects, Novel Memory and Advanced Display Technologies , 2014 , mrss14-1692-cc09-32
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Black, J. R., “Mass transport of aluminum by momentum exchange with conducting electrons,” Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings, 6th Annual IEEE International, (1967), pp. 148–159.Google Scholar
Black, J. R., “Electromigration - A brief survey and some recent results,” Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 16, pp. 338–347, (1969).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, R., et al. ., “Copper metallization for high performance silicon technology,” Annual Review of Materials Science, vol. 30, pp. 229–262, (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, J. C., et al. ., “Electromigration-induced failures in, and microstructure and resistivity of, sputtered gold films,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 43, pp. 307–311, (1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croes, K., et al. ., "High-resolution in-situ of gold electromigration: test time reduction," Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 41, pp. 1439–1442, (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitman, C. S., “Prediction of transmission line lifetimes over temperature and current density,” Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 49, pp. 488–494, (2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lide, D. R., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics: A Ready-Reference Book of Chemical and Physical Data, 78 th ed. (CRC Press, 1997).Google Scholar
Kilgore, S., et al. ., “Electromigration of Electroplated Gold Interconnects,” Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, vol. 863, (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, C. K., et al. ., “Electromigration of Cu/low dielectric constant interconnects,” Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 46, pp. 213–231, (2006).Google Scholar
Klein, B. J., “Electromigration in thin gold films,” Journal of Physics F: Metal Physics, vol. 3, pp. 691–696, (1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tai, K. L. and Ohring, M., “Grain-boundary electromigration in thin films II. Tracer measurements in pure Au,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 48, pp. 36–45, (1977).Google Scholar
Lloyd, J. R., “Black’s law revisited—Nucleation and growth in electromigration failure,” Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 47, pp. 1468–1472, (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar