Study of electromigration-induced voiding mechanisms in Cu interconnects

150 p.Electromigration has been a very active research topic ever since it was first discovered to be the failure mechanism in integrated circuit (IC) interconnects and has attracted interest of numerous researchers so far, especially due to its direct technological implications. With the advent of new Cu/low-k interconnects and aggressive technology scaling, electromigration has become a major reliability concern for IC interconnects. The subject of the present research is the study of electromigration in Cu dual-damascene interconnects. The objectives of this research are to investigate electromigration behavior of dual-damascene Cu interconnects, identify key electromigration issues and develop in-depth understanding of the electromigration-induced voiding mechanism in Cu dual-damascene interconnectsDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MSE