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Electromigration behavior of silver thin film fabricated by electron-beam physical vapor deposition

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Abstract

Electromigration (EM) is considered as a serious issue that threatens the reliability of electronic packaging. For the long-term reliability of the application of pure silver thin films, it is important to investigate its EM effect; however, there are limited studies focused on this aspect. In this study, the EM of a silver thin film deposited on a glass substrate was examined at a current density of 8.89 × 105 A/cm2 and room temperature of 15 °C. During the EM test, the new phenomenon of the thin-thread silver structures with a unique direction was noted. To explain this, finite element analysis was applied to simulate the temperature and direction of the current flow. The effect of thermal and stress migration could be ignored in this experiment based on the temperature distribution results. The electron wind force played an important role in the formation of the thin-thread silver with nucleation structure following the direction and strength of the electron flow. By analyzing the failure location, melting was observed near the cathode since the generation of the thin-thread silver decreased the contact area for passing current. Finally, reducing the grain boundaries was proposed as an approach to improve the reliability of the pure silver sample, which is paramount for manufactures.

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Acknowledgement

This work was financially supported by Project to Create Research and Educational Hubs for Innovative Manufacturing in Asia, Osaka University of Special Budget Project by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. A part of this work was supported by Nanotechnology Platform of MEXT, Japan, Grant Number JPMXP09F20OS0005. This research was funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan and also supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, under the Grant MOST-109-2222-E-035 -008 -MY2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Japan

    Zhi Jin & Fupeng Huo

  2. Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University, Ibaraki, 5600047, Japan

    Zhi Jin, Fupeng Huo & Hiroshi Nishikawa

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, 407, Taiwan

    Yu-An Shen

  4. Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    Y. C. Chan

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  1. Zhi Jin
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  2. Yu-An Shen
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  3. Fupeng Huo
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  4. Y. C. Chan
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  5. Hiroshi Nishikawa
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Correspondence to Zhi Jin, Yu-An Shen or Hiroshi Nishikawa.

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Jin, Z., Shen, YA., Huo, F. et al. Electromigration behavior of silver thin film fabricated by electron-beam physical vapor deposition. J Mater Sci 56, 9769–9779 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-05862-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-05862-w

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