Reliability and Failure of Electronic Materials and Devices, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5

Mass Transport-Induced Failure

Abstract

The preceding chapters have introduced the devices, processing defects, and yields of electronic products that will now see service. Chapter 4 prepared us to expect product failures and provided mathematical tools that enable future performance to be predicted. From now until the end of Chapter 10, we shall be primarily concerned with the detailed microscopic mechanisms that cause these products to degrade in use. We have already noted (Section 1.3.1) that virtually all failures in electronic materials and devices are the result of the physical movement of atoms or charge carriers from benign locations associated with normal behavior to other sites where they contribute to creating or enlarging defects ...