Survival in Metallization Burnout

Electronic systems must be able to withstand certain radiation environmental stresses which could potentially result in significant transient currents to its semiconductors. The reliability of integrated circuits is dependent upon the overstress to which they are exposed in operation. Overstress of the integrated circuit in the form of metallization burnout causes openings in the interconnection paths leading to failure of the connected circuitry. This study seeks to identify the failure mechanism with its corresponding thresholds and magnitude of currents as well as to identify a probability of survival number for the threshold condition.