The processes of grain boundary grooving and cathode voiding which are important in determining the life times of thin films connecting the transistors in an integrated circuit are investigated by introducing a new mathematical model, which flows from the fundamental postulates of irreversible thermodynamics, accounting for the effects of applied electric field and thermal stresses. The extensive computer studies on the triple junction displacement dynamics shows that it obeys the first order reaction kinetics at the transient stage, which is followed by the familiar time law as , in the normalized time and space domain, at the steady state regime in the absence of the electric field (EF). The application of EF doesn&rsquo / t modify this time law very / but puts only an abrupt upper limit for the groove depth and fixes the total elapse time for that event, which is found to be inversely proportional with the electron wind intensity parameter. The drift in the cathode edge due to the surface diffusion along the side walls is simulated under the constant current regime. An analytical formula is obtained in terms of system parameters, which shows well defined threshold level for the onset of electromigration induced cathode drift, showing an excellent agreement with the reported experimental values in the literature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12605302/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 September 2004 |
| Creators | Akyildiz, Oncu |
| Contributors | Ogurtani, Tarik Omer |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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