Grain boundary played 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 was developed for grain boundary noise. This model revealed the internal relation 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 were found. In order to describe the noise enhancement at grain boundary quantitatively, a new parameter - grain-boundary noise-enhancement factor - was proposed which reflected the fact that the grain boundary noise could characterise the electromigration damage sensitively.

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