Accounting of the porosity of the material in the simulation of the time-dependent dielectric breakdown in the metallization system of integrated circuits

Abstract

In this work, simulation modeling of processes of the diffusion of copper ions in low-k dielectric between two neighboring copper lines is performed. It was found that an increase in the diffusion time of an ion in a material with a porosity of 30% and a pore radius of 1 nm (for the input parameters specified in the work) due to an increase in the diffusion path can be estimated at 16%. Moreover, the combined consideration of the effect of an increase in the electric field at the edges of the pores and a decrease in the diffusion activation energy leads to a decrease in the time to breakdown by 26% relatively dense material.