Computational Simulation of Electromigration Induced Degradation in Electronics Copper Interconnects
Cemal Basaran, Minghui Lin and Shidong Li
Summer Computer Simulation Conference 2007 (SCSC 2007)
San Diego, California (USA), July 15-18, 2007
Abstract
Current density levels are expected to increase by orders of magnitude in next generation power electronics and nanoelectronics. Electromigration which occur under high current density is a major concern for the electronics industry. A general purpose computational model has been proposed, which is capable of simulating coupled electromigration and thermo-mechanical stress evolution, several dual damascene copper interconnect structures have been investigated for electromigration damage. Different diffusion boundary conditions including blocking and non blocking boundary conditions, current crowding effects, interface diffusion effects and material plasticity have been considered. Different damage criteria are used for quantifying material degradation. The computational simulation results match the experimental findings; therefore the proposed model proves to be a useful tool for quantifying damage in electronics interconnects.