Article

Investigating Electrical Noise Signals in Metal Thin Films with Different Geometry

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Abstract

The demands for reducing the size of integrated circuits (IC) at higher operating speeds are driving the semiconductor industry to reduce feature dimensions of circuit components and metallic interconnections. As device sizes on the chip become smaller, the reliability of the integrated circuit becomes limited by the performance of these metallic interconnections. The excess noise measurement is a fast and non-destructive method in studying reliability problems related to thin metal films. Low frequency (LF) noise measurements were performed on thin metal films of three different geometries. These measurements were carried out under stressing current densities and at different ambient temperatures up to 200 o C. Noise spectra measurements were found to be a function of ambient temperature and current density. Under these conditions thin metal films exhibited to have a 1/f ? type noise component. Studying 1/f ? noise measurements as a function of temperature showed that the value of ? closely resembled the same pattern as that of the excess noise magnitude. Furthermore, a discussion of the measurement system and technique to investigate excess noise in thin metal films is presented. It was found that the thin metal film with higher resistance is more reliable and its results are analyzed in the paper. The excess noise measurement on the metal thin films of different geometry helps in understanding reliability problems related to film structure and dimensions.

Keywords: electricity|electronics|materials and processes|materials testing|research

How to Cite:

Massiha, G. H. & Rawat, K. S., (2002) “Investigating Electrical Noise Signals in Metal Thin Films with Different Geometry”, Journal of Industrial Technology 18(2).