Understanding the Pre-Failure Thermo-Mechanical Issues In Electromigration of TSV Enabled 3D ICs

Published

May 30, 2017

Author(s)

Christopher E. Sunday, Dmitry Veksler, Kin P. Cheung, Yaw S. Obeng

Abstract

Traditional metrology has been unable to adequately address the needs of emerging integrated circuits at the nano scale; thus, new metrology and techniques are needed. For example, the reliability challenges, and their root causes, in TSV enabled 3D-IC fabrication need to be well understood and controlled to enable mass production. This requires new approaches to the metrology. In this paper, we use microwave propagation characteristics (S-parameters) to study the thermo-mechanical reliability issues that precede electromigration failures in Cu-filled TSVs. The pre-failure insertion losses and group delay are reversibly dependent on both the device temperature and the amount of current forced through the devices under test. This is attributed to the plasticity of the copper fill in the TSVs.

Proceedings Title

ECS Transactions Vol 76, 2017: Dielectrics for Nanosystems 8: Materials Science, Processing,
Reliability, and
Manufacturing -and- Solid State Topics

Volume

77

Issue

2

Conference Dates

May 28-June 2, 2017

Conference Location

New orleans, LA, US

Conference Title

231st ECS MEETING

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1149/07702.0071ecst

Local Download

Keywords

Electromigration, TSV, Interconnects

Citation

Sunday, C. , Veksler, D. , Cheung, K. and Obeng, Y. (2017), Understanding the Pre-Failure Thermo-Mechanical Issues In Electromigration of TSV Enabled 3D ICs, ECS Transactions Vol 76, 2017: Dielectrics for Nanosystems 8: Materials Science, Processing, Reliability, and Manufacturing -and- Solid State Topics, New orleans, LA, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1149/07702.0071ecst, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=922466 (Accessed October 13, 2025)