Investigation of the role of compositional effects on electromigration damage of metallic interconnects

Compositional effects are usually observed in the early stages of electromi gration of interconnects made of Al alloys like Al-Cu and Al-Si. These effe cts are due to a variation of the fraction of the solute species (Cu or Si) dissolved into the Al matrix mainly due to heating effects. Here we invest igate the role of compositional effects on electromigration phenomena by us ing a dynamical percolation model that we have recently developed. Our resu lts well reproduce several phenomenological aspects typical of electromigra tion experiments. This agreement, together with the flexibility of our appr oach, suggests wide possibilities of further extending the model to study a lso the geometrical and structural effects. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.