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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/K13844/01
Title: RELIABILITY AND DESIGN RULES FOR DEEP SUBMICRON AND POWER INTEGRATED CIRCUIT INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY
Principal Investigator: Greer, Professor AL
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Pre Nexus Migration
Department: Materials Science & Metallurgy
Organisation: University of Cambridge
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 March 1995 Ends: 28 February 1998 Value (£): 152,167
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Design & Testing Technology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
A new model is presented for simulating electromigration in thin film metal conductors. The backfluxes are calculated explicitly in each of the grain boundaries using concentration and stress gradients resulting from the initial electromigration flux. The stress dependent diffusivity term is also directly included in the formulation. It is assumed that the main cause of the flux divergence is the grain structure of the conductor and that these divergences occur at the triple point junctions of the grain boundaries. Time to failure and classic resistometric analysis of 5 conductors is performed. Results indicate that current density exponent of n~2 should be used in time to failure analysis. This is due to the localised stress migration and diffusion acting against the electromigration force throughout the period of the conductor lifetime. A direct correlation between the time to failure (ttf) and relative rate of resistance change (Rrc) was found when all conductors and stress conditions were considered together. This relationship is of the form ttf = 0.223Rrc^-1.11 and indicates that resistance measurements can be used in producing lifetime parameters for use in providing reliability rules for conductor design.
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Organisation Website: http://www.cam.ac.uk