Physics Based Analysis of Electromigration Lifetime in Ruthenium and Copper Interconnects

Electromigration (EM) is a widespread and dominant failure mechanism in high-end semiconductor packaging, particularly in Cu microbump interconnects for 3D heterogeneous integration. Cu microbumps fail predominantly by void nucleation and intermetallic compound (IMC) formation at the Cu/Solder interface [1] These types of degradation processes are intensified at high current densities and elevated temperatures, in association with current crowding and joule heating in fine-pitch assemblies.