Dendrite material identification method using fractal analysis

In this study an alternative way has been investigated in order to make the identification of dendrites caused failures easier. Dendrites grown during electrochemical migration (ECM) can cause shortages which can lead to catastrophic failures. ECM is a simple transport process, it can be described with electrochemical principles. Dendrites are metal or metal-oxide structures which grow from the cathode electrode towards the anode electrode. Furthermore dendrites are natural fractal phenomena. On the other hand, dendrites as fractal objects have differently defined dimension values. The so called box dimension is widely applied to characterize the structure of fractals. Box dimension of dendrites can be calculated with the simple box calculating algorithm and with similar procedures. One way to detect shortages is the automatic optical inspection. It is worth to examine the shape and form of these shortages. In this paper the identification of dendrites caused failures is discussed. The first step is short-detection, the second step is taking optical photomicrographs - pictures editing and the third step is calculating fractal dimensions. Fractal dimensions are material specific properties. If we know the fractal dimension of a shortage, we can determine the material which it is grown from. In view of this information we can guard against shortages for example with special coatings or new printed wiring board (PWB) layout design.