The broad objective of this CAREER award is to develop research and education activities concerning the thermo-mechanical integrity of metal interconnects in modern microelectronic devices. Microelectronic failures of thermal and mechanical origins are causing increasing concerns as the feature dimension shrinks and the structural complexity increases. Research and education plans directly devoted to this issue, from the mechanics and materials perspectives, are therefore essential. Specific elements of the proposed research include micromechanisms of void nucleation, void growth induced stress redistribution, relations between stress-induced voids and electromigration voids, processing induced stresses in multilevel metallization, interconnect Joule heating, and the thermal-electrical coupling in locally damaged interconnects. Both numerical and experimental techniques will be employed. The education plans include the revision of curricula to accommodate this rapidly expanding field, development of cross-disciplinary courses bridging the mechanical, materials and electrical aspects of microelectronics, and incorporation of research into project-oriented courses. Some parts of computational modeling and software module development will be projects for undergraduate research.
In addition to the technical activities of research and education, efforts will also be made to increase the exposure of underrepresented ethnic groups, which constitute a large portion of population in New Mexico, to research endeavors. This will be achieved by participation in the undergraduate research programs, already in place at The University of New Mexico, for encouraging minority students to consider graduate study. ***
