Talk:Electromigration

I am trying to translate the german EM article the best I can. Feel free to correct the english in the text up to the message. It is quite difficult because it is very technical. I have done only a few technical translations from german to english. I prefer reading english text on EM not doing any translations at all :-) --Paddyez 11:54, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

is the first image´s alt tag: "failure through degradation of material" correct? --Paddyez 17:39, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Wow...Deutsch...you are definitely smarter than me. I added the WD example -- my coworker (former WD employee) told me about that one. Basically, a bunch of drives using a particular controller board came back to WD under warranty fulfillment -- widespread failures across multiple production runs, but all within a 15-18 month window. When the WD engineers decapped the (third-party) failed microcontroller, and put it under a microscope, a first-year EE student could see the electromigration damage all over the die. The supplier confirmed the defective part and replaced all of them, not that it helped WD very much.

Formulas need citation
This Wikipedia entry is of little use to scholars and students, if they don't know where to look up the formulas presented. I cannot cite "Wikipedia article" as the source in my documents. Otherwise, it's one of the best on Wikipedia, in many other respects.


 * Added a citation to the Forces on ions in an electrical field paragaph and added some clarifications for the quantities in the equation Ernst37 (talk) 14:21, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

James R. Black (of Motorola, Phoenix)
Does anyone know what Jim Black's middle name was? He died in 2004. DFH 16:37, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

references should be spread into the text
working on a pHD closely related to EM, I find some things here that are a bit strange. so maybe they are wrong or maybe I didn't read the reference. as the references are not put into the text, I can't go to verifie them.

to be more accurate, many things are almost true but for me the issue is in the almost and that doesn't seems to be due to errors in translation. My impression (maybe totally wrong, and in that case I appologize) is that this article was done by someone who read a lot about EM, and tried to do a summary but didn't studied it enough to understand what are perticularities and what are rules or what are hypothesis. Calavente (talk) 10:11, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Sparsity of EM failure in IC is not due to "layout" or "design practice"
" In modern consumer electronic devices, ICs rarely fail due to electromigration effects. This is because proper semiconductor design practices incorporate the effects of electromigration into the IC's layout." was stated ; I can make some comments on this :

some research is being done on design, may some company are incorporating it, but mostly not as using 135 or 45° angles are really not easy to incorporate in a complexe circuit AND are very difficult to built in fab. people are trying to build the first metal level with as many small lines as possible to profite from the Blech effect for the thinner liner, most susceptible to EM. That is the only thing actually done related to design.

Most Anti-EM works are mostly related to material and interfaces changes : ie: process changes and not design changes

No technology is released if the extrapolated time to failure under EM for more than 0.1% of the dies is superior to 10y. As most dies never attain 10years of CONTINUAL use, you won't see many EM related failure in commercialised dies. some may happen, but not a lot. Calavente (talk) 10:11, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

thermal effect
"In an ideal conductor, where atoms are arranged in a perfect lattice structure, the electrons moving through it would experience no collisions and electromigration would not occur." No interaction between electron and atomes would mean no resistivity : it doesn't exist. That has nothing to do with perfect lattice. A monocristal with perfect lattice would still encounter EM as transport would occure at the surfaces of the material.

currently impurities (ie non perfect lattice) can help reduce EM : see the Al-Cu alloy in aluminium microelectronics.Calavente (talk) 10:17, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Diagram of Electromigration
In the diagram, I think the positive terminal should be called the cathode. Conventional current flows to the anode. The anode can be the positive (in electrolysis for example), but in this case surely the positive terminal is the cathode. Perhaps someone will alter the diagram. I'm not sure how to do that. 212.121.220.12 (talk) 15:46, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Update: I now think that the diagram is correct if electromigration is considered to be analogous to electrolysis. Anyway, the "positive" and "negative" are correct and I think that's the main thing.212.121.220.12 (talk) 13:38, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Use of "TCAD"
The article mentions TCAD, "Technology Computer Aided Design." However, the more appropriate term for the area is EDA, "Electronic Design Automation." If you mention TCAD to a person working in this area they would think you are talking about the Transactions on Computer Aided Design, an IEEE Journal.

TheVLSIcook (talk) 04:04, 23 August 2016 (UTC)