Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 1: Layer properties: electrical, optical, and mechanical properties

DS 1.10: Talk

Monday, March 26, 2012, 11:45–12:00, H 0111

Electromigration in Ag Nanowires with a Controlled Single Grain Boundary — •Simon Sindermann, Michael Horn-von Hoegen, Guenter Dumpich, and Frank-J. Meyer zu Heringdorf — Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CeNIDE) University Duisburg-Essen

The combination of epitaxial growth and focused ion beam (FIB) milling enables us to fabricate single- and bi-crystalline electromigration (EM) test structures. Depending on the growth parameters, epitaxial Ag islands on a Si(111) surface can consist of a composition of two areas of different lattice orientation [1]. Such islands are used to be structured into Ag nanowires. For electrical isolation, a silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate is used, the device layer of which is cut with FIB [2]. To monitor the EM process, an image sequence of the Ag nanowires during electrical stressing is captured in-situ with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). We are able to identify nm-sized voids and hillocks, and can follow them from nucleation up to the failure of the test structure. Amongst stationary (growing and shrinking) voids, some voids were found to propagate along the nanowire and merge with other voids. The shape of voids is strongly influenced by the crystal lattice symmetry [3], especially for voids overcoming the grain boundary. A correlation of the point of failure and the position of the grain boundary will be discussed.

[1] D. Wall et al. IBM J. Res. and Dev., 55 (2011) 9

[2] S. Sindermann et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum., (2011) in revision

[3] A. Latz et al. Phys. Rev. B, (2011) in revision