Damage mechanics of electromigration induced failure

Electromigration is a major road block in the pursuit of nanoelectronics and next generation power electronics. The current density in the state-of-the-art microelectronics solder joints is about 10³ A/cm². In the next generation nanoelectronics solder joints this current density is expected to increase by an order of magnitude, at least. In this paper, a new damage mechanics formulation is implemented in a general finite element procedure and used for simulation of solder joints electromigration induced failure. Nonlinear viscoplastic time-dependent nature of the material and current crowding effects are taken into account in the formulation. The model is verified against test data.