Effects of Annealing, Thermomigration, and Electromigration on the Intermetallic Compounds Growth Kinetics of Cu/Sn-2.5Ag Microbump

The effects of annealing, thermomigration (TM), and electromigration (EM) on the intermetallic com- pound (IMC) growth kinetics of Cu/Sn-2.5Ag microbumps were investigated using in-situ scanning electron microscopy at 120-165 degrees C with a current density of 1.5 x 10(5) A/cm2. The IMC growth kinetics was controlled by a diffusion-dominant mechanism and a chemical-reaction-dominant mechanism with annealing and current-stressing conditions, respectively. Before all of the Sn was fully transformed into IMCs, the activation energies of the Cu3Sn IMCs were 0.54 eV, 0.50 eV, and 0.40 eV for annealing, TM, and EM, respectively, which is closely related to the acceleration effect of the interfacial reaction by electron wind force under current stressing. After all of the Sn was fully transformed into IMCs by reacting with Cu, the Cu3Sn IMC growth rates of the three structures became similar due to the reduced and similar diffusion rates inside the IMCs with and without current stressing.