Investigating the electromigration limits of Cu nano-interconnects using a novel hybrid physics-based model

Abstract

To predict the impact of technological variables such as materials, dimensions, interfaces, and operating conditions on Cu electromigration, in this study a hybrid modeling framework is developed by coupling a global Korhonen-type electromigration modeling module with a cellular automaton-based void dynamics module. The modeling framework is corroborated and benchmarked using experiments on Cu interconnects and is used to predict the impact of scaling on Cu electromigration induced stress evolution. The simulations shed light on the impact of dimensional scaling on stress kinetics, void nucleation, and growth phases, where the nucleation phase is found to become longer than the growth phase and voids are found to grow relatively more rapidly upon nucleation in highly scaled linewidth. In addition, the simulations predict 22% lower median time to failure and a higher variability of time to failure for downstream vs upstream electromigration modes due to the more critical impact of near via voiding in downstream cases. Lending further credence to its predictive merits, the model predicts and explains complex R-shift signatures occurring at high temperature electromigration experiments due to void dynamics.