Grain boundary plays a key role in electromigration process of polycrystal interconnection. A free volume was taken to represent a so-called vacancy–ion complex as a function of grain boundary specific resistivity, and a new characterisation model for grain boundary noise was developed. This model revealed the internal relationship between the boundary scattering section and electromigration noise. Comparing the simulation result with the experimental result, the source as well as the form of noise change in the electromigration process was found. In order to describe the noise enhancement at grain boundary quantitatively, a new parameter grain boundary noise enhancement factor was proposed which indicated that the grain boundary noise could sensitively characterise the electromigration damage.

A New Model for Electromigration Grain Boundary Noise Based on Free Volume. L.He, L.Du, Y.Q.Zhuang, H.Chen, W.H.Chen, W.H.Li, P.Sun: Chinese Physics B, 2010, 19[9], 097202