Thermal effect on electromigration performance for Al/SiO2, Cu/SiO2 and Cu/low-K interconnect systems

A thermal model for determining the interconnect temperature of different interconnect systems is developed. The analytical model predictions are compared with the two-dimensional numerical simulation results using the finite element analysis. Good agreement between the analytical model and the finite element analysis is obtained. At high current densities, the temperature of the Cu/low-K interconnect is much higher than that of the Cu/SiO2 and Al/SiO2 interconnects due to the lower thermal conductivity of the low-K dielectric. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved