“…On the other hand, Nishimura et al (Nishimura, Okuda, Ueda, Hirata and Yano 1990) studied the effect of stress in the passivation layer on the electromigration lifetime of the vias. They found that the median time to failure for the via chain with the slope angle of 55 • is about 1/18 times shorter than that with the slope angle of 85 • , despite a better step coverage of Al film in the via with slope angle of 55 • .…”