New approach to fatigue testing of chip-level interconnects. (General Developments).Researchers at NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. , in collaboration with the Max-Planck-Institute for Metals Research, have been conducting fatigue testing of thin aluminum and copper films on silicon-based substrates through the application of high current density ac signals. This novel approach to studying cyclic deformation of chip-level interconnects depends upon Joule joule (j  l, joul), abbr. J, unit of work or energy in the mks system of units, which is based on the metric system; it is the work done or energy expended by a force of 1 newton acting through self-heating of the metal and the differences in coefficient of thermal expansion coefficient of thermal expansion,n See expansion, thermal coefficient. between film and substrate materials. Effects of frequency, waveform, encapsulant en·cap·su·lant n. A material used for encapsulating. , and local interconnect microstructure mi·cro·struc·ture n. The structure of an organism or object as revealed through microscopic examination. microstructure Noun a structure on a microscopic scale, such as that of a metal or a cell are being investigated in materials systems in their actual in-use configurations, without special specimen preparation or removal of films from their substrates. One recent result shows that soft polymeric-based encapsulants do not suppress deformation-induced topography in aluminum lines. This test method provides a means for understanding the reliability of interconnects subjected to severe repeating loads due to power cycling, energy conservation, and processor loading. CONTACT: Bob Keller, (303) 497-7651; keller@boulder.nist.gov. |
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