Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T17:05:39.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Reliability science and analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

King-Ning Tu
King-Ning Tu
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

Introduction

We should define what reliability science is. When a device is manufactured to provide a unique function in applications, it is generally expected that the microstructure in the device will be unchanged in its lifetime of use. Unfortunately, this is not true. In electronic device applications, we have to apply an electric field or current. Under a high-current density, electromigration induces changes in microstructure and leads to circuit failure due to opening by void formation or shorting by whisker extrusion. The high-current density also causes joule heating and the temperature rise will lead to thermal stress between different materials having a different thermal expansion coefficient in the device. The stress and temperature gradients will induce atomic diffusion, phase change, and microstructure instability. What is unique in these microstructure changes is that they occur in the domain of non-equilibrium thermodynamics or they are irreversible processes. The basic science to provide an understanding of phase changes in irreversible processes that leads to device failure is reliability science. From the point of view of applications, physical and statistical analyses on the basis of reliability science should be able to predict the lifetime of a device [1–4].

The traditional metallurgical phase changes occur between two equilibrium states, and they are defined under constant temperature and constant pressure, for example the phase change in a piece of solder of eutectic SnPb going from 200°C to 100°C at ambient pressure.

Type
Chapter
Information
Electronic Thin-Film Reliability , pp. 336 - 362
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] M., Ohring, Reliability and Failure of Electronic Materials and Devices (Academic Press, San Diego, 1998).Google Scholar
[2] W. J., Bertram, “Yield and reliability,” Ch. 14 of VLSI Technology, ed. S. M., Sze (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1983).Google Scholar
[3] J. R., Black, “Mass transport of Al by momentum exchange with conducting electrons,” Proc. IEEE Int. Rel. Phys. Symp. (1967), 144–59.Google Scholar
[4] M., Shatzkes and J. R., Lloyd, “A model for conductor failure considering diffusion concurrently with electromigration resulting in a current exponent of 2,” J. Appl. Phys. 9 (1986), 3890–3.Google Scholar
[5] R., Rosenberg and M., Ohring, “Void formation and growth during electromigration in thin films,” J. Appl. Phys. 42 (1971), 5671–9.Google Scholar
[6] J. J., Clement, “Electromigration modeling for integrated circuit interconnect reliability analysis,” IEEE Trans. on Device and Materials Reliability 1 (2001), 33-42.Google Scholar
[7] S., Brandenburg and S., Yeh, Proceedings of Surface Mount International Conference and Exhibition, SMI98, San Jose, CA, Aug. 1998, pp. 337–44.Google Scholar
[8] Everett C. C., Yeh, W. J., Choi, K. N., Tu, P., Elenius and H., Balkan, “Current-crowding-induced electromigration failure in flip chip solder joints,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 80 (4) (2002), 580–2.Google Scholar
[9] Lingyun, Zhang, Shengquan, Ou, Joanne, Huang, K. N., Tu, Stephen, Gee and Luu, Nguyen, “Effect of current crowding on void propagation at the interface between intermetallic compound and solder in flip chip solder joints,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 88 (2006), 012106.Google Scholar
[10] S. W., Liang, Y. W., Chang, T. L., Shao, Chih, Chen and K. N., Tu, “Effect of three-dimensional current and temperature distribution on void formation and propagation in flip chip solder joints during electromigration,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 89 (2006), 022117.Google Scholar
[11] T. V., Zaporozhets, A. M., Gusak, K. N., Tu and S. G., Mhaisalkar, “Three-dimensional simulation of void migration at the interface between thin metallic film and dielectric under electromigration,” J. Appl. Phys. 98, 103508 (2005).Google Scholar
[12] Y.-S., Lai, S., Sathe, C.-L., Kao and C.-W., Lee, “Integrating electrothermal coupling analysis in the calibration of experimental electromigration reliability of flip-chip packages,” in Proceedings of ECTC 2005 (55th Electronic Components and Technology Conference), Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA, 2005, pp. 1421–6.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×