The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 26, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 01, 1999
Donald Cheng, Hsinchu, TW;
Kuan-Yu Fu, Hsinchu, TW;
United Microelectronics Corp., Hsinchu, TW;
Abstract
A method of testing EM lifetime has following steps. First, a pre-characterizing step is performed to obtain parameters such as T (the critical temperature,), Wc (the critical line width), Q (the activation energy of grain boundary diffusion) and Q (the activation energy of lattice diffusion) of a metal prior to the use of the test methodology for a new technology. Next, whether a real line width (W) of the metal is narrower or wider than W is determined. For the narrower line widths, the diffusion mechanism is dominated by the Lattice diffusion only and corresponds to single activation energy (Q ). A WLR isothermal test with a relatively high temperature, such as 400° C., can be implemented to reduce the test time to as short as a few seconds. The EM lifetime (t ) under normal operating condition can be directly obtained by conversion from T to T by using Q .