RELIABILITY MODELING FOR ELECTROMIGRATION FAILURE

Electromigration has been recognized as one of the most important wearout failure mechanisms in integrated circuits. As such, the problem of extrapolating test results for the purpose of reliability predictions is very important to the industry, and the topic has understandably received considerable attention in the professional literature. Over the years, however, there have been serious problems correlating experimental results with theoretical predictions. Recently this dilemma has become resolved through a better understanding of the failure process. This paper will review these developments and the process that has led us to where we are today.