Resistometric study on electromigration failure in copper interconnects

Abstract

A resistometric model based on microscopic analysis of electromigration failure mechanism is built. An extraction method for failure parameters of electromigration in copper interconnects is proposed from resistometric characteristics including the slope and step height. The results show that the failure time can be considered as the time to deplete grains at the cathode line end under a given stressing current. Two dominant failure modes with resuling slit and trench voids are observed in electromigration induced failures. The resistance curve for the trench-voiding failure mode consists of two characteristic regions,i.e., a step jump and an oblique line. The grain size and the extracted critical void length are lognormally distributed with close parameters. The variation in the slop of the oblique line in resistance curve with temperature obeys an exponential law. Activation energy of approximately 0.9 eV obtained from the resisometric model is consistent with that from Black equation.