Correlation between material composition, processing, chemical bonding state, and electrochemical migration failure rate in isolating compounds of high density microelectronics systems

Metals can exhibit dendritic short-circuit growth caused by electrochemical migration in conductor-insulator structures, which may result in failures and reliability problems in microcircuits. The classical model of electrochemical migration has been well known for several decades. This process is a transport of metal ions between two metallization stripes under bias through a continuous aqueous electrolyte. Due to the electrodeposition at the cathode, dendrites and dendrite-like deposits are formed. Ultimately, such a deposit can lead to a short circuit in the device and can cause catastrophic failure. A few anomalous and newly discovered phenomena have initiated to perform some revisions and to add supplementary models to the conventional one. Recent investigations have demonstrated that not only metallic components, but also oxides from the isolating layers can take part in the formation of migrated shorts, after a chemical reduction process. Material design aspects need to clarify the correlation between material composition, processing, chemical bonding state, and electrochemical migration failure rate in isolating compounds: this is the scope of the present study.