Theory for electromigration failure in Cu conductors

A model for electromigration failure is proposed where the criterion for damage is not classical nucleation forming a void, but is a delamination at an interface. In addition, the anisotropy in the elastic constants of Cu metal is responsible for a bimodal failure distribution recognizing that the driving force for mass transport depends on the hydrostatic stress whereas the failure criterion depends on a normal stress. The agreement with published data is reasonably good. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.