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The effects of baking temperature on back-end-of-line (BEOL) reliability were explored on 28 nm technology node. We found that stress migration (SM) worse temperature showed up around 200 °C and apparent negative resistance (R) shifts appeared after baking at high temperatures. The Electromigration (EM) performance behaved the temperature dependence and the high baking temperature improved the main time-to-failure (TTF) distribution. Interlayer dielectric (ILD) time dependence dielectric breakdown (TDDB) performance was enhanced at low baking temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report electromigration (EM) reliability optimizations using highly efficient uniform design (UD). Considering the large error that results from using a single lifetime index, and the different EM failure modes, we introduce a new proportion index incorporating early failures to compensate for the shortage of using a single traditional intrinsic lifetime index in our Design of Experiments (DOE). Applying a supersaturated UD DOE, we greatly reduce (> 70\\% savings) the number of wafers used in experiments, comparing to the classical RSM design. This very economic experiment has successfully maximized EM lifetimes, which are more than 10 times longer, and without early failure, in a much shorter period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, some practical considerations for effective and efficient wafer-level reliability control (WLRC) are presented. We propose a better solution to replace the previous method by adding a protection diode to avoid process induced charging damage on test structure devices. This work also provides in-depth discussions on WLR Via electromigration (EM), which correlated well with traditional time-consuming package-level tests. In addition, due to the time constraint at WLRC, some real cases are discussed regarding the suitable sampling plan and test structures. These studies are to improve WLRC effectiveness and efficiency, to diagnose reliability concerns, to expedite WLRC failure analyses when out-of-control, and, thus, to facilitate WLRC lot dispositions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]