Defect and Microstructural Evolution in Thermally Cycled Cu Through-Silicon Vias

Published

June 14, 2014

Author(s)

Chukwudi A. Okoro, James Marro, Yaw S. Obeng, Kathleen Richardson

Abstract

In this study, the effect of thermal cycling on defect generation, microstructure, and the RF signal integrity of blind Cu through-silicon via (TSV) were investigated. Three different thermal cycling profiles were used; each differentiated by their peak cycling temperature (100°C, 150°C, 200 °C) and the time needed to complete one cycle (cycle time). The study was performed on two Cu-TSV wafer sample types; one containing large processing-induced voids (voided sample), the other without (non-voided sample). It was found that the RF signal return loss |S11| of the Cu-TSVs degraded upon thermal cycling for both the voided and the non-voided sample types. This was attributed to the increase in the void area due to the formation of new voids, rather than the growth of pre-existing voids. On the other hand, the grain orientation and grain sizes of the Cu-TSVs were found to be unaffected by all studied thermal cycling conditions and sample types.

Citation

Microelectronics Reliability

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Okoro, C. , Marro, J. , Obeng, Y. and Richardson, K. (2014), Defect and Microstructural Evolution in Thermally Cycled Cu Through-Silicon Vias, Microelectronics Reliability, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=915535 (Accessed October 12, 2025)