Equivalent circuits for electromigration

Abstract Electromigration continues to be a major concern for integrated circuit design. The susceptibility to electromigration is assessed by tracking the stress in metal lines under the influence of applied currents, which can be computationally expensive for large chips. Over the last few years, an efficient approach for tracking stress in large interconnect networks has been developed, and well-received, in part because it provides a model for stress dynamics in the form of a standard linear time-invariant dynamic system. In the context of this model, we will show that the dynamic behavior of the stresses and fluxes in metal lines is exactly identical to the dynamic behavior of voltages and currents in certain RC circuits that can be easily constructed for the metal lines. Thus, electromigration assessment for any metal interconnect structure can be done by simply simulating the corresponding equivalent RC circuit. This opens the door for benefiting from well-known techniques for fast circuit simulation, as well as methods for macro-modelling and analysis of RC circuits, in order to improve the performance and capacity of practical methods for electromigration assessment in large circuits.