Irregular effect of chloride impurities on migration failure reliability: contradictions or understandable?

Metals can exhibit dendritic short-circuits caused by electrochemical migration in conductor–insulator structures, which may result in failures and reliability problems in microcircuits. The phenomenon of electrochemical migration has been well known for several decades; the process is a transport o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microelectronics and reliability 1999-09, Vol.39 (9), p.1407-1411
Main Author: Harsanyi, Gabor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dendritic growth
Electrochemical migration
Ionic surface contaminants
Metallization failures
Reliability of microcircuits
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Summary:Metals can exhibit dendritic short-circuits caused by electrochemical migration in conductor–insulator structures, which may result in failures and reliability problems in microcircuits. The phenomenon of electrochemical migration has been well known for several decades; the process is a transport of metal ions between two metallization stripes under bias through a continuous aqueous electrolyte. Due to the electrodeposition at the cathode, dendrites and dendrite-like deposits are formed. Ultimately, such a deposit can lead to a short circuit in the device and can cause catastrophic failure. Surface contaminants, especially ionic types, may have significant influences on the overall process. Cl − contaminant has been investigated extensively; however, many contradictory statements were published. The role of these contaminants is rather complicated in influencing the formation of migrated resistive shorts: the various effects act against each other. Theoretical explanations are discussed and strengthened by experimental results in this paper.
ISSN:0026-2714
1872-941X
DOI:10.1016/S0026-2714(99)00079-7