Stress-driven void growth in narrow interconnection lines

Abstract

We consider a model of stress-driven void growth in interconnection lines that are narrower than the metal grain size. The metal line is imbedded in an SiO2 matrix at a temperature T0, and incurs tensile stress after being brought down to an annealing temperature Tann. A void nucleates at a particular grain boundary, along which the diffusion is assumed to be so fast that the stress relaxation at that grain boundary is nearly complete in a very short time. This is assumed to occur before the void spans the width of the line. Thereafter, the void continues to grow by matter transport through bulk diffusion, cascading down sequential tiers of grain boundaries, resulting in a layer of extra matter at each grain boundary for strain relaxation. The kinetics of the void growth is given analytically. The consideration of climbing dislocations is deferred for future analysis.