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Thermomechanical fatigue testing of thin metal films

Published

Author(s)

Reiner Monig, R R. Keller, Cynthia A. Volkert

Abstract

An experimental method is described for performing thermomechanical fatigue testing of thin films and interconnects on substrates. The method used alternating currents to generate temperature, stain, and stress cycles in the metal structures. The details of the method, the temperature distributions, and the stress and strain cycles are presented. The apparatus has been instulled in an SEM and allows in-situ observations of the damage evolution during testing. First observations of the damage during termomechanical fatigue testing of Cu interconnects are shown and reveal that the fatigue damage formation is strongly affected by the interconnect dimensions. In addition, results from a special test structure confirm that the damage is caused by fatigue and not by electromigration.
Citation
Review of Scientific Instruments

Keywords

interconnects, thermomechanical fatigue, thin film fatigue, thin film reliability

Citation

Monig, R. , Keller, R. and Volkert, C. (2008), Thermomechanical fatigue testing of thin metal films, Review of Scientific Instruments (Accessed October 14, 2025)

Issues

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Created October 16, 2008
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