Demonstration of low-frequency noise measurements for studying electromigration mechanisms in advanced nano-scaled interconnects

Abstract

Electromigration (EM) strongly decreases the reliability of micro-electronics interconnects and becomes more problematic as scaling continues. Remedial measures are required, but therefore EM mechanisms first have to be understood. The standard, accelerated EM test methods are time-consuming, destructive and provide only limited physical understanding. We demonstrate that low-frequency (LF) noise measurements can be used to calculate EM activation energies, making it a fast and non-destructive alternative test method that leads to new insights into the underlying EM mechanisms. More specifically, we show 3 different approaches to calculate activation energies based on LF noise measurements and prove their equivalence.