Microcracks and Metallization Burnout.

Abstract

This report describes the work done to determine the extent to which the reliability of integrated circuits (ICs) suffers when those ICs contain small cracks (microcracks) in their metallization. It was hypothesized that microcracked devices would undergo metallization at lower current pulses than unmicrocracked devices. Six hundred triple three-input NAND gates manufactured by Texas Instruments were used, of which 300 had been deliberately processed to have microcracks. The devices were first examined under a scanning electron microscope and electrically characterized on the AFWL Fairchild 5000. Different batches of both cracked and uncracked devices were then subjected to pulses varying in pulse width from 10 ns to 500 ns. The short pulse widths assured approximately adiabatic conditions, for which development of a theory of metallization burnout (MBO) was relatively straight-forward. Postpulse testing revealed that there is no significant difference between the levels at which cracked and uncracked devices underwent MBO. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA078019

Entities

People

  • Armen E. Mardiguian

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Circuits
  • Contracts
  • Electron Microscopes
  • Electronics Laboratories
  • Energy
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Heat Of Fusion
  • Integrated Circuits
  • Materials
  • Microscopy
  • Nand Gates
  • Radiation Effects
  • Scanning Electron Microscopes
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Materials Science (Mechanical Engineering).
  • Thin Film Deposition Science.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics