Resistance noise measurement: A better diagnostic tool to detect stress and current induced degradation

Mechanical stress and current-induced degradation can provoke holes and kinks in thin conducting films, resulting in a local increase in current density around these failures. This type of degradation resulting in holes or kinks in thin film resistances has been studied. A model describing the increase in 1/fnoise and resistance due to a local current density increase around failures is presented here. Our calculations are in agreement with experimental results obtained on carbon films damaged on purpose. It is shown quantitatively that 1/f noise is a more sensitive parameter than resistance measurements only. Noise measurement can be used as a fast and non-destructive technique for reliability testing of LSI Al interconnects and thin-film resistors on the condition that samples effectively contain not more than 10(13) free carriers. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd