Modeling bimodal electromigration failure distributions

One of the major tasks in reliability methodology is the correct modeling of electromigration failure distributions. Usually the failures within a sample of test devices are caused by a single physical failure mechanism and the resulting failure distribution can be tight-fitted by a single log-normal distribution. However, it is possible that several failure mechanisms are active within the sample or even one specimen implying multimodal failure distributions. In this paper bimodal log-normal distributions will be discussed, which show two distinct branches as a consequence of two failure mechanisms. In order to describe these failure distributions we use two models – the superposition model and the weak-link model. Both are composed of two log-normal distributions and consider different failure scenarios. We show that they are special cases of one general bimodal model. For each model, coinciding experimental data sets will be presented, which were observed on different via-line structures. The physical failure analysis confirms the model assumptions and supports the bimodal distribution concept.