Electromigration Failure in Au Thin-Film Conductors

Experiments are carried out to understand the electromigration-induced failure mechanism in thin-film Au conductors. The activation energy for the atom transport and the magnitude of the current exponent In the failure equation are obtained. The role of surface coverage on the reliability of AU stripes is studied. The underlying mode of atom transport and the possible sources of flux divergences are discussed in terms of these results.