Self-heating aware EM reliability prediction of advanced CMOS technology by kinetic Monte Carlo method

Abstract The self-heating aware electromigration (EM) reliability of back end of line (BEOL) is investigated by a developed kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulator with consideration of the microscopic physical mechanisms including the migration of metal ions. The developed simulator can reproduce the void morphology and the evolution of metal wires resistance during EM simulation, which is validated by experimental results. The self-heating from the nanosheet MOSFETs is evaluated, adding the extra heat for interconnects. The EM degradation in different layers of metal wires is analyzed by utilizing KMC simulator. The impacts of power density and aspect ratio of metal wires on EM lifetime are discussed with the coupling effects of self-heating and Joule heat.