The driftless and electron-windless electromigration theory

The recently presented new theory of electromigration of metal atoms is summarized. The new theory attributes the migration to diffusion of electrical neutral atoms and generation-recombination-trapping of the electrically neutral atoms in the bulk of the metal line and on the interior surfaces of the voids in the metal line. It assumes no drift current or zero host ion current, and it asserts no electron-wind force which was assumed empirically in the 40-year-old 1969 Black model. The new theory gives the time-dependence and materials-dependences of the metal line resistance, not available previously, both of which can experimentally tested to delineate the fundamental mechanisms and pathways, and statistical void geometries. It also gives materials-dependent simple analytical formulas of time-to-failure and time-to-open-circuit for compact modeling interconnects in computer-aided design of integrated circuits.