Electromigration-induced damage in bamboo Al interconnects

Depletion and hillock formation were examined in-situ in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) during electromigration of bamboo Al interconnect segments. Hillocks formed directly at the anode ends of the segments by epitaxial addition of Al at the bottom Al/TiN interface. Depletion occurred nonuniformly from the cathode end and stopped once the distance between the leading void and the hillock reached the critical length for electromigration at the given current density. A modified equation for the drift velocity is proposed, which includes the effect of nonuniform depletion and predicts that interconnects with nonuniform depletion are more reliable than those with uniform depletion.     

Current enhanced wettability of eutectic SnBi melt on Cu substrate

The effect of a direct electric current on the wetting behaviour of eutectic SnBi melt on Cu substrate at 220°C was investigated in the present study. It is found that the application of current enhanced the growth rate and lateral growth of interfacial reaction layer between eutectic SnBi melt and Cu substrate. Furthermore, with the increase in the current, the spread of eutectic SnBi melt on Cu is accelerated significantly and the steady state contact angle is decreased markedly. The reason for these is also discussed in the present paper.     

Electromigration reliability of open TSV structures

Through silicon vias are the components in three-dimensional integrated circuits, which are responsible for the vertical connection inside the dies. In this work we present studies about the reliability of open through silicon vias against electromigration. A two-step approach is followed. In the first step the stress development of a void free structure is analysed by means of simulation to find the locations, where voids due to stress are most probably nucleated. In the second step, voids are placed in the through silicon vias and their evolution is traced including the increase of resistance. The resistance raises more than linearly in time and shows an abrupt open circuit failure. These results are in good agreement with results of time accelerated electromigration tests.     

Power grid redundant path contribution in system on chip (SoC) robustness against electromigration

The miniaturisation of integrated circuits leads to reliability issues such as electromigration (EMG). This well-known phenomenon is checked at design level by CAD tools. The conventional EMG check methods are based on electrical parameters. However, the wire physical degradation depends also on the interconnection network structure. In order to improve the EMG check methodologies, we propose an accurate method based on failure mechanism and chip power grid configuration. Indeed, the power grid offers redundant paths in case of void in main power supply path. The principle of our method is to take into account the contribution of these redundant paths in power grid lifetime assessment. These effects are validated by silicon ageing tests on structures designed in 28 nm Full Depleted Silicon on Insulator (FDSOI). These accelerated tests results have confirmed the lifetime gain due to the redundancy. These results provide perspectives for the relaxation of wire current limits and improve the chip design toward EMG.     

Failure analysis on reflector blackening between lead frame electrodes in LEDs under WHTOL test

Blackening induced lumen decay in a QFN LED after WHTOL reliability test was reported and analyzed in this paper. A new LED blackening failure mechanism was proposed based on solid experimental results. We concluded that the failure process underwent delamination between lead frame and reflector polymer composites followed by chemical penetration, composite corrosion, silver migration, and finally caused blackening failure. Delamination and corrosive de-flash agent were the key factors for the failure mode. Besides, we also estimated the influence of the failure to the optical performance through simulation. Apart from other reported factors, this study highlighted that both composite corrosion and Ag migration could generate serious illumination decrease as well. The outcome of this study is valuable for LED manufacture and quality control in the future.     

Fabrication of Al micro-belts by utilizing electromigration

The fabrication of electromigration induced micro-belts in passivated aluminum films was investigated. The experimental sample was a passivated polycrystalline Al line with a slit and a rectangular hole at the anode end. The micro-belts could be formed at predetermined positions, with their length dependent on the current stress time, and their widths and thicknesses controlled by the size of the hole. It was found that the growth of the micro-belt is affected by the purity of Al, the current density and the current stress time. The experimental results are explained in the discussion.     

Temperature and current-density distributions in flip-chip solder joints with Cu traces

Three-dimensional simulation was performed to investigate the temperature and current density distribution in flip-chip solder joints with Cu traces during current stressing. It was found that the Cu traces can reduce the Joule heating effect significantly at high stressing currents. When the solder joints were stressed by 0.6 A, the average temperature increases in solder bumps with the Al traces was 26.7°C, and it was deceased to 18.7°C for the solder joint with the Cu traces. Hot spots exist in the solder near the entrance points of the Al or Cu traces. The temperature increases in the hot spot were 29.3°C and 20.6°C, for solder joints with the Al traces and Cu traces, respectively. As for current density distribution, the maximum current density inside the solder decreased slightly from 1.66×10⁵ A/cm² to 1.46×10⁵ A/cm² when the Al traces were replaced by the Cu traces. The solder joints with the Cu traces exhibited lower Joule heating and current crowding effects than those with the Al traces, which was mainly attributed to the lower electrical conductivity of the Cu traces. Therefore, the solder joints with the Cu traces are expected to have better electromigration resistance.     

铜互连电迁移可靠性的研究进展

综述了近年来铜互连电迁移可靠性的研究进展;讨论了电迁移的基本原理、常用研究方法及主要失效机制;探讨了改善铜互连电迁移性能的各种方法,如铜合金、增加金属覆盖层及等离子体表面处理。最后,指出了铜互连可靠性研究中存在的问题。     

醋酸纤维素膜上~(153,154)Eu的电迁移

Atizetmuller和Buchtela等采用醋酸纤维素膜(CAM)作支持体研究了希土与α-HIBA体系中的电迁移行为。本文在文献[6]的基础上,对Eu的电迁移行为的影响因素:电解质浓度、端电压、离子强度、电解质的pH、电迁移时间、冷却水温度、原始料液的酸度和外来离子等进行了研究。还测定了采用推荐程序时Eu的电迁移速率、Eu与α-HIBA一级络合物的稳定常数。     

The effect of barrier layers on the distribution function of interconnect electromigration failures

Electromigration data after stressing narrow lines with or without a TiW layer underneath have been analysed. The difference between the failure morphology and the failure time distributions is explained and a new statistical failure model is derived to explain the differences in electromigration observations.