Reliability and Failure Mechanisms of Nonhermetic Aluminum SIC's: Literature Review and Bias Humidity Performance

The aging of aluminum metallized silicon integrated circuit (SIC) test vehicles (bare, SiN CAPS only, room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicone rubber only, SiN CAPS + RTV) at 85°C, 85 percent relative humidity (RH), for 12 597 h was carried out with either +10 V, -10 V, or 0 Vdc bias imposed on the samples. No failures and no unusual leakage current behavior were observed in humidity. Auger depth profiles of the passivating oxide indicate no change in oxide thickness due to temperature and humidity alone. In a moist environment, anodization of the aluminum takes place. An estimate of the median life under worst case use conditions was calculated to be better than 1.6 x 106h. This was obtained by assuming the same value of sigma and the same acceleration factors as those obtained from N-type metal-oxide semiconductor (NMOS) failure rate data applied to an Eyring Model. The results show that the failure rate for aluminum metallization under worst case use conditions is less than 1 FIT (failure in 109device hours) after 40 years. A literature survey of aluminum corrosion is also included.

[1]  G. Scamans,et al.  Electron metallography of the aluminium-water vapour reaction and its relevance to stress-corrosion susceptibility , 1979 .

[2]  B. R. White,et al.  Factors governing aluminium interconnection corrosion in plastic encapsulated microelectronic devices , 1977 .

[3]  D. Vermilyea,et al.  Inhibition of the aluminum+water reaction , 1970 .

[4]  C. Dyer,et al.  Electrical instability of composite aluminum oxide films , 1978 .

[5]  D. Vermilyea,et al.  Aluminum + water reaction , 1969 .

[6]  P. Totta.  Abstract: In‐process intergranular corrosion in Al alloy thin films , 1976 .

[7]  Edward B. Hakim,et al.  Environmental Factors Governing Field Reliability of Plastic Transistors and Integrated Circuits , 1972 .

[8]  Sumio Nishida,et al.  Interaction Between Phosphosilicate Glass Films and Water , 1974 .

[9]  M. Pourbaix.  Atlas of Electrochemical Equilibria in Aqueous Solutions , 1974 .

[10]  The role of water vapour in the corrosion of microelectronic circuits , 1977 .

[11]  J. J. Randall,et al.  The Reaction between Anodic Aluminum Oxide and Water , 1961 .

[12]  M. Grieco,et al.  Aluminum Oxidation in Water , 1978 .

[13]  R. S. Keen,et al.  Advantages of vapor-plated phosphosilicate films in large-scale integrated circuit arrays , 1970 .

[14]  J. R. Bevington,et al.  Plastic IC Reliability Evaluation and Analysis , 1970 .

[15]  H. Flower.  Electron irradiation induced aqueous corrosion of aluminium and magnesium , 1977 .

[16]  R. C. Olberg.  The Effects of Epoxy Encapsulant Composition on Semiconductor Device Stability , 1971 .

[17]  J. M. Martínez‐Duart,et al.  ON THE INHIBITION OF THE REACTION BETWEEN ANODIC ALUMINUM OXIDE AND WATER , 1980 .

[18]  D. Tromans,et al.  Direct Observation of Intergranular Corrosion in AI-4 Wt% Cu Alloy , 1979 .

[19]  R. Lathlaen,et al.  Stress in Thin Films of Silane Vapor‐Deposited Silicon Dioxide , 1969 .

[20]  Robert B. Comizzoli.  Bulk and Surface Conduction in CVD SiO2 and PSG Passivation Layers , 1976 .

[21]  N. Sbar,et al.  Bias-Humidity Performance of Encapsulated and Unencapsulated Ti-Pd-Au Thin-Film Conductors in an Environment Contaminated with Cl 2 , 1976 .

[22]  R. B. Givens,et al.  Localized Corrosion of Aluminum: Blister Formation as a Precursor of Pitting , 1977 .

[23]  J. L. Flood.  Reliability Aspects of Plastic Encapsulated Integrated Circuits , 1972 .

[24]  B. J. Baliga,et al.  Growth of silica and phosphosilicate films , 1973 .

[25]  H. J. D. Wit,et al.  Impedance Measurements during Anodization of Aluminum , 1979 .

[26]  R. B. Givens,et al.  Precursive Blistering in the Localized Corrosion of Aluminum , 1980 .

[27]  R. C. Olberg,et al.  Factors contributing to the corrosion of the aluminum metal on semiconductor devices packaged in plastics , 1976 .

[28]  D. S. Peck,et al.  The reliability of semiconductor devices in the bell system , 1974 .

[29]  W. L. Robb,et al.  THIN SILICONE MEMBRANES‐THEIR PERMEATION PROPERTIES AND SOME APPLICATIONS , 1968, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[30]  George L. Schnable,et al.  The Detection of Corrosion Phenomena with pH‐Sensitive Fluorescent Dyes on Aluminum‐ and Gold‐Metallized IC Devices , 1981 .