Thermomigration in micro interconnects in integrated circuits
集成电路微互连结构中的热迁移

With the reduction of feature size of integrated circuits, higher current density has been introduced in electronic devices which produces a significant Joule heating effect. This also brings about an increase of the temperature which induces a very high temperature gradient in some local regions of micro interconnects. As a result, thermomigration will occur and metal atoms will move opposite to the direction of the temperature gradient. Thermomigration is one of common modes in reliability failures in electronic devices. This paper reviews and analyzes the previous researches on the thermomigration theory and experiment in stripe and solder interconnects under the temperature loading and the current/temperature loading. The challenges of thermomigration are discussed for interconnects in electronic devices in the future.