Abstract
While Black’s equation for electromigration (EM) in interconnects with n = 1 is rigorously based on the principles of electrotransport, n > 1 is more commonly observed empirically. This deviation is usually attributed to Joule heating. An alternative explanation is suggested by the recent discovery of EM plasticity. To examine this possibility, we have retested samples that had been previously subjected to a predamaging phase of high temperature and current densities to determine whether the loss of median time to failure (MTF) is retained. We find that the predamaged samples exhibit MTFs that are permanently reduced, which is a characteristic of EM plasticity.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Spansion, Inc. for experimental resources and for fabricating the samples, as well as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for a valuable summer internship opportunity for one of the authors (A.S.B.) in 2006, during which the core idea of this study was developed in collaboration with co-authors C.S.H. and P.R.B., when both were still with AMD. Professor B.M. Clemens of Stanford is also acknowledged for having suggested some of the comparisons in the present study. A.S.B. is currently supported through the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Director’s Research Fellowship Program and by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Grant No. DE-AC52-06NA25396. Both A.S.B. and W.D.N. gratefully acknowledge support by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences through Grant No. (DE-FG02-04ER46163).
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Budiman, A., Hau-Riege, C., Baek, W. et al. Electromigration-Induced Plastic Deformation in Cu Interconnects: Effects on Current Density Exponent, n, and Implications for EM Reliability Assessment. J. Electron. Mater. 39, 2483–2488 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-010-1356-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-010-1356-4