ELECTROMIGRATION AND THE BACK FLOW POTENTIAL IN THIN FILMS AND LINES

Abstract eng:
Electromigration (EM) in a metal line is the phenomenon of flow of the metal atoms along the line. The flow is driven by the current of electrons and is also affected by the variation of chemical potential along the line. The replacement of atoms leads to a change in eigenstrain, which, in turn, alters the chemical potential. Since the chemical potential is very often dominated by a stress term, this back flow is very often attributed to the presence of a stress gradient. In microelectronic applications metal lines are usually subjected to the actions of large thermally induced eigenstrain even before the current is turned on. This large eigenstrain, together with the em-induced eigenstrain, may lead to a nonlinear back flow, which is the subject of investigation of this paper.

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