Physically-based simulation of electromigration induced failures in copper dual-damascene interconnect

We have developed a novel physical model and a simulation algorithm capable of predicting electromigration (EM) induced void nucleation and growth in an arbitrary interconnect segment. Incorporation of all important atom migration causes into the mass balance equation and its solution together with solution of the corresponding electromagnetics, heat transfer and elasticity problems, in a coupled manner, has provided a capability for the EM design rules generation/optimization with the physically based simulations. As an example, we have demonstrated the model capability to discriminate an early failure from a long term one taking place in a via containing copper dual damascene (DD) structure.