Derivation Method of Film Characteristic Constants by Drift Velocity Measurement
Details
Increases in current density and Joule heating due to scaling down of integrated circuits (ICs) deteriorate the reliability of the metal line. Electromigration might be one of the main damage of the interconnecting metal line and it leads to serious deterioration of the IC package reliability. The metal lines in IC are often connected by vias and such lines have the failure mode that the cathode edge of the line drifts in the direction of electron flow as a result of electromigration. Recently an expression of an atomic flux divergence due to electromigration at the line ends, AFD_<gen>|_<end>, was derived considering the boundary condition of the atomic diffusion at the line ends. In this study, the drift velocity is theoretically expressed utilizing AFD_<gen>|_<end> to construct the derivation method of the film characteristics in the governing parameter formula. By equating the theoretical drift velocity with measured one, the film characteristic constants are obtained. It is shown that the AFD_<gen>|_<end>-based method can appropriately determine the film characteristic constants.
