Stress-induced voiding study in integrated circuit interconnects

An analytical equation for an ultralarge-scale integration interconnect lifetime due to stress-induced voiding (SIV) is derived from the energy perspective. It is shown that the SIV lifetime is strongly dependent on the passivation quality at the cap layer/interconnect interface, the confinement effect by the surrounding materials to the interconnects, and the available diffusion paths in the interconnects. Contrary to the traditional power-law creep model, we find that the temperature exponent in SIV lifetime formulation is determined by the available diffusion paths for the interconnect atoms and the interconnect geometries. The critical temperature for the SIV is found to be independent of passivation integrity and dielectric confinement effect. Actual stress-free temperature (SFT) during the SIV process is also found to be different from the dielectric/cap layer deposition temperature or the final annealing temperature of the metallization, and it can be evaluated analytically once the activation energy, temperature exponent and critical temperature are determined experimentally. The smaller actual SFT indicates that a strong stress relaxation occurs before the high temperature storage test. Our results show that our SIV lifetime model can be used to predict the SIV lifetime in nano-interconnects.