posted on 2024-03-14, 14:05authored byMohammad Waliullah, Al-Mustasin Abir Hossain, Brizeida Ojeda, Nahiyan Muzaffar, Rodrigo A. Bernal
Metallic nanowires have a wide range of potential applications
as interconnects in next-generation electronic devices, such as flexible
electronics, due to their excellent electrical and mechanical properties.
However, for their successful application, it is necessary to assess
their electrical reliability, namely, their behavior under electromigration,
a common failure mode for electronic interconnects. Here, for the
first time, we have experimentally characterized the electromigration
reliability of individual penta-twinned gold nanowires, conducting
time-to-failure tests for 30 samples as a function of temperature.
At each temperature, the distribution of results was modeled with
a log-normal distribution to find the median time to failure (MTTF),
an important metric for interconnects. The electromigration activation
energy and other relevant constants were then determined by fitting
the MTTF results to the classic Black’s electromigration model.
The activation energy found (0.47–0.58 eV) suggests that surface
diffusion is a significant contributor to electromigration, which
indicates that further improvements in lifetime and reliability could
be obtained by surface passivation of the nanowires’ surface.