ON THE CORROSION OF MATERIALS IN THE FIELD OF MICROELECTRONICS

The reliability of microelectronic components and devices is also dete rmined by the corrosion behaviour of the applied materials. Because of the very small dimensions of the resulting corrosion systems, the tra nsferability both of the experimental methods and of the interpretatio n of results, known from macrodimensioned corrosion systems, is only p ossible with some restrictions. Micro-dimensioned corrosion systems, o ccurring in the field of microelectronics, are characterized by a comp lex mechanical, thermal and corrosive load, which can change very rapi dly over time, by the presence of different, galvanic coupled metals a nd at least by an electrical load of the corroding material. This repo rt describes the corrosion types and problems of microelectronical cor rosion systems, concerning the experimental simulation of corrosion re actions and the evaluation of the results.