Effects of Temperature Amplitude and Loading Frequency on Alternating Current - Induced Damage in Cu Thin Films

Although it was recently observed that severe fatigue damage was formed in Al or Cu interconnects due to the cyclic temperatures generated by Joule heating of the metal lines by the passage of alternating currents (AC), AC loading frequency effect on the damage evolution characteristics are not known so far. This work focused on the effect of AC loading frequency (100 Hz vs. 10 kHz) on the thermo-mechanical fatigue characteristics by using polycrystalline sputtered Cu lines with temperature cycles with amplitudes from 100 to $300^{\circ}C$. It was consistently observed that higher loading frequency accelerated damaged grain growth and led to earlier failure irrespective of Cu grain sizes. The frequency effect is believed to result from differences in the concentration of defects created by the deformation-induced motion of dislocations to the grain boundaries.