Effect of hydrogen on electromigration and 1/f noise in gold films

Abstract

The 1/f noise of polycrystalline gold films (5 μm wide and 0.5 μm thick) was found to decrease in the presence of hydrogen, to a level comparable with that in a single‐crystal gold film. Additionally, hydrogen was found to segregate to the metal‐substrate interface. On the basis of these results and recent evidence in the literature, we propose that hydrogen interacting with interface defects is responsible for both the observed 1/f noise decrease and the previously reported electromigration enhancements.