title: In Situ Time-dependent Dielectric Breakdown in the Transmission Electron Microscope: A Possibility to Understand the Failure Mechanism in Microelectronic Devices.
abstract: The time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) in on-chip interconnect stacks is one of the most critical failure mechanisms for microelectronic devices. The aggressive scaling of feature sizes, both on devices and interconnects, leads to serious challenges to ensure the required product reliability. Standard reliability tests and post-mortem failure analysis provide only limited information about the physics of failure mechanisms and degradation kinetics. Therefore it is necessary to develop new experimental approaches and procedures to study the TDDB failure mechanisms and degradation kinetics in particular. In this paper, an in situ experimental methodology in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) is demonstrated to investigate the TDDB degradation and failure mechanisms in Cu/ULK interconnect stacks. High quality imaging and chemical analysis are used to study the kinetic process. The in situ electrical test is integrated into the TEM to provide an elevated electrical field to the dielectrics. Electron tomography is utilized to characterize the directed Cu diffusion in the insulating dielectrics. This experimental procedure opens a possibility to study the failure mechanism in interconnect stacks of microelectronic products, and it could also be extended to other structures in active devices.
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems; Dresden Center for Nanoanalysis, Technische Universität Dresden.
authors.forename: Zhongquan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems; martin.gall@ikts-md.fraunhofer.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gall
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems; Globalfoundries Fab 8.
authors.forename: Kong Boon
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Yeap
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sander
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clausner
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mühle
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gluch
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems.
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Standke
authors.affiliation: Globalfoundries Fab 1.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Aubel
authors.affiliation: Globalfoundries Fab 1.
authors.forename: Armand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beyer
authors.affiliation: Globalfoundries Fab 1.
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hauschildt
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems; Dresden Center for Nanoanalysis, Technische Universität Dresden.
authors.forename: Ehrenfried
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zschech
mesh_terms: D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003300:Copper