Large-Scale Electromigration Statistics for Cu Interconnects (original) (raw)

Even after the successful introduction of Cu-based metallization, the electromigration failure risk has remained one of the important reliability concerns for advanced process technologies. The observation of strong bimodality for the electron up-flow direction in dual-inlaid Cu interconnects has added complexity, but is now widely accepted. More recently, bimodality has been reported also in down-flow electromigration, leading to very short lifetimes due to small, slit-shaped voids under vias. For a more thorough investigation of these early failure phenomena, specific test structures were designed based on the Wheatstone Bridge technique. The use of these structures enabled an increase of the tested sample size past 1.1 million, allowing a direct analysis of electromigration failure mechanisms at the single-digit ppm regime. Results indicate that down-flow electromigration exhibits bimodality at very small percentage levels, not readily identifiable with standard testing methods. ...