Mechanisms of power module source metal degradation during electro-thermal aging

Ruffilli, Roberta; Berkani, Mounira; Dupuy, Philippe; Lefebvre, Stéphane; Weber, Yann; Legros, Marc

doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2017.06.086

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…Cyclical temperature fluctuations lead to the repeated thermal expansion and contraction of the material layers of the IGBT module [7,8]. The large mismatch between the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs) of the silicon (Si) chip and Al metallization layer repeatedly subjects the layer to thermal stress [9,10]. The diffusion of Al atoms along grain boundaries to release this stress creates dislocations and, thus, leads to the plastic deformation of the Al grains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macro–Mesoscale Modeling of the Evolution of the Surface Roughness of the Al Metallization Layer of an IGBT Module during Power Cycling

Zheng

Qin

et al. 2023

Materials

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One of the main failure modes of an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module is the reconstruction of an aluminum (Al) metallization layer on the surface of the IGBT chip. In this study, experimental observations and numerical simulations were used to investigate the evolution of the surface morphology of this Al metallization layer during power cycling, and both internal and external factors affecting the surface roughness of the layer were analyzed. The results indicate that the microstructure of the Al metallization layer evolves during power cycling, where the initially flat surface gradually becomes uneven, such that the roughness varies significantly across the IGBT chip surface. The surface roughness depends on several factors, including the grain size, grain orientation, temperature, and stress. With regard to the internal factors, reducing the grain size or orientation differences between neighboring grains can effectively decrease the surface roughness. With regard to the external factors, the reasonable design of the process parameters, a reduction in the stress concentration and temperature hotspots, and preventing large local deformation can also reduce the surface roughness.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macro–Mesoscale Modeling of the Evolution of the Surface Roughness of the Al Metallization Layer of an IGBT Module during Power Cycling

Zheng

Qin

et al. 2023

Materials

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“…This fact is related to a large extent to the constant tendency to structure miniaturization (Bermejo et al, 2016;Long et al, 2016) (which correspondingly results in increasing "thermal" loads on them), as well as requires structure operation speed (Hofmann et al, 2004) In this connection much attention is being given to metal-insulator-semiconductor structures and physical-mechanical processes that are basic to their operation: solid-state reactions at interfaces (Popok et al, 2016;Dornic et al, 2018;Pichkur et al, 2015), diffusion and aggregation of complexes, generation-recombination processes of charge carriers (Woirgard et al, 2015;Brincker et al, 2018), problems of heat conduction in multilayer media (Skvortsov et.al., 2016a;Hu et, al., 2012) It is also known that a semiconductor crystal is subjected to high thermoelastic stresses in the power of electronic devices, especially under the pulsed operating conditions (Gavryushin et al, 2018a;Gavryushin et al, 2018b). In this case, the metallization systems, contacts, and near-contact areas of a semiconductor structure are the most "vulnerable", because they have many interfaces and geometrical heterogeneities (Orlov et al, 2003b;Skvortsov and Karizin, 2012;Skvortsov et al, 2016a;Ruffilli et al, 2017;). Therefore, the purpose of the present work is an investigation of the effect of thin dielectric layers on the heating dynamics of interconnections on silicon under a surface thermal shock.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Thin Dielectric Layers at Silicon on Interconnection Heating Dynamics at Thermal Shocks

Скворцов¹,

Koryachko²,

Skvortsova³

2019

PTQ

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The relevance of the study is due to the fact that in the conditions of development of micro-and nanoelectronics, it is necessary to pay attention to resistive switching systems, which are the basis in the structures of these areas of electronics. The work deals with the investigation of the role of thin dielectric layers of silicon oxide and nitride on interconnection heating dynamics at monocrystalline silicon plates. The leading method to the study of this problem is the method of experiment, which allows identifying the features of the influence of the dielectric sublayer on the thermal regimes of multilayer systems. It is shown that passage of current pulses (amplitude up to 6x1010 A/m² and duration up to 600 μs) leads to thermal damage of interconnections right up to breaking the electric circuit. The character of destruction strongly depends on the quality of deposition of dielectric and metal films as well as on the state of the dielectric-metal interface. It was found that the oscillograms of the inclusion, taken during the passage of a current pulse, clearly reflect the change in the dimensional (h2) and thermal (λ2) parameters of the dielectric sublayers; considered the thermal degradation mechanisms of the aluminum metallization systems with thin dielectric sublayers related to its melting; it was found that formation of melted zones is related to local reduction of film cross-section and consequently to the appearance of a melted zone that coagulates into drops in the course of current pulse passing and promotes breaking the electric circuit. The proposed method can be applied to assess the thermal properties of thin films of dielectrics.

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“…It is well known that the systems of metallization of modern instruments and integrated microcircuits are multilayer structures containing sublayers whose thickness can be an order of magnitude smaller than the thickness of the main current-carrying layer [1][2][3]. Due to the different thermophysical characteristics of the materials, such systems experience large thermal loads, especially in high-power semiconductor devices, which can lead to contact melting (CP) in multilayer metallization systems [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contact Melting of Aluminum-Silicon Structures under Conditions of Thermal Shock

Скворцов

Koryachko

2018

KEM

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The work is devoted to the study of contact melting in the Al-Si system, which is an aluminum film deposited on a silicon single-crystal substrate. The impulse action of high-density currents (j> 8.1010 A / m2) passing through an aluminum film is analyzed. It was found that under the considered electric heat loads in the system, the degradation processes associated with the appearance of a molten aluminum zone and subsequent contact melting in the metal-semiconductor system develop. From the analysis of contact melting processes, a technique for estimating the coefficients of multiphase diffusion in the system under consideration is a thin aluminum film-single-crystal silicon substrate.

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Mechanisms of power module source metal degradation during electro-thermal aging

Cited by 9 publications

References 13 publications

Macro–Mesoscale Modeling of the Evolution of the Surface Roughness of the Al Metallization Layer of an IGBT Module during Power Cycling

Macro–Mesoscale Modeling of the Evolution of the Surface Roughness of the Al Metallization Layer of an IGBT Module during Power Cycling

The Effect of Thin Dielectric Layers at Silicon on Interconnection Heating Dynamics at Thermal Shocks

Contact Melting of Aluminum-Silicon Structures under Conditions of Thermal Shock

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