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Evidence of the electromigration short-length effect in Aluminum-based metallurgy with tungsten diffusion barriers

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Abstract

Several phenomena related to the short-length effect were observed during lifetime measurements of a two-level structure consisting of Ti-AlCu-Ti stripes connected by interlevel tungsten (W) stud-vias. A linear increase in resistance was followed by a resistance change with time that approached zero. The threshold product is not a constant at 250 °C for stripe lengths of 30, 50 and 100 µm. The sigma of the lognormal distribution increased as the current density decreased and/or as the fail criterion increased. The lifetime, or t50, at relatively small current densities did not obey Black's empirical equation. Rather, the lifetime data obeyed a modified version of this equation that includes a critical current density, jc, as a new parameter. This critical current density is strongly dependent on the fail criterion, but is independent of temperature in the range 210–250 °C.

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Acknowledgments

G. Kline, D. Girardi, D. Warner and V. Blusnavage provided laboratory support. We appreciate the advice of C-K. Hu, H. Rathore, R. Wachnik and D. Bouldin, and are grateful to the East Fishkill Process Community for sample preparation. D. Boyne, R. Hemmert and D. Chidambarrao are thanked for helpful technical comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Products Division, IBM Corporation, Rt. 52, Hopewell Junction, NY, 12533, USA

    Ronald G. Filippi, Glenn A. Biery & Michael H. Wood

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  1. Ronald G. Filippi
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  2. Glenn A. Biery
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  3. Michael H. Wood
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Filippi, R.G., Biery, G.A. & Wood, M.H. Evidence of the electromigration short-length effect in Aluminum-based metallurgy with tungsten diffusion barriers. MRS Online Proceedings Library 309, 141–148 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-309-141

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