Title :
Silver metallization for advanced interconnects
Author :
Manepalli, Rahul ; Stepniak, Frank ; Bidstrup-Allen, Sue Ann ; Kohl, Paul A.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Chem. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA
fDate :
2/1/1999 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Silver metal has the highest room-temperature electrical conductivity of any substance; however, it has found limited acceptance in the electronic industry (e.g., silver filled epoxy) due to the high rate of metal corrosion and migration causing dendrites and electrical failures. With decreasing transistor feature sizes, device-operating voltages have scaled down considerably. In this paper, the reliability of silver and potential benefits of silver metallization are discussed in terms of future trends in microelectronic interconnections. Experimental data supports existing reliability models indicating that electrochemical migration failure modes may not be operative at low voltages. Silver metal corrosion and migration are studied under accelerated test conditions to obtain a qualitative understanding of the failure mechanism
Keywords :
corrosion; electromigration; failure analysis; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated circuit metallisation; integrated circuit reliability; silver; Ag; accelerated testing; corrosion; dendrite; electrical conductivity; electrical failure; electrochemical migration; low voltage electronics; microelectronic interconnect; reliability; silver metallization; Conductivity; Corrosion; Electronics industry; Life estimation; Low voltage; Metallization; Microelectronics; Silver; Testing; Transistors;
Journal_Title :
Advanced Packaging, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/6040.746536
