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Duty Cycle and Frequency Effects of Pulsed-DC Currents on Electromigration-Induced Stress in Al Interconnects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Richard Frankovic  and
Gary H. Bernstein
Richard Frankovic
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, and J. Joseph Clement, Digital Equipment Corp., 77 Reed Road, Hudson, MA 01749
Gary H. Bernstein
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, and J. Joseph Clement, Digital Equipment Corp., 77 Reed Road, Hudson, MA 01749
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Abstract

The effects of the duty cycle and frequency of a pulsed-current stress on the critical length-current density product, (jl c ) were measured using edge-displacement techniques. In our study, Al edge-displacement segments were stressed at a temperature of 200 °C and at peak pulsed-dc current densities below 6×105 A/cm2 in a nitrogen ambient. jl c was measured for duty cycles of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% at 100 kHz, and for 50% duty cycle at lower frequencies. jl c was observed to increase with decreasing duty cycle and increasing frequency. We measured a 2.6-fold increase in jl c for the 25% duty cycle at 100 kHz as compared to dc. We have used the vacancy supersaturation model to predict the jl c enhancement for lower duty cycle operation.

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Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 428: Symposium L – Materials Reliability in Microelectronics VI , 1996 , 109
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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