Open Access

ARTICLE

Peridynamic Simulation of Electromigration

by Walter Gerstle¹, Stewart Silling², David Read³, Vinod Tewary⁴, Richard Lehoucq⁵

1 University of New Mexico
2 Sandia National Laboratories
3 National Institute of Standards and Technology
4 National Institute of Standards and Technology
5 Sandia National Laboratories

Computers, Materials & Continua 2008, 8(2), 75-92. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmc.2008.008.075

Abstract

A theoretical framework, based upon the peridynamic model, is presented for analytical and computational simulation of electromigration. The framework allows four coupled physical processes to be modeled simultaneously: mechanical deformation, heat transfer, electrical potential distribution, and vacancy diffusion. The dynamics of void and crack formation, and hillock and whisker growth can potentially be modeled. The framework can potentially be applied at several modeling scales: atomistic, crystallite, multiple crystallite, and macro. The conceptual simplicity of the model promises to permit many phenomena observed in microchips, including electromigration, thermo-mechanical crack formation, and fatigue crack formation, to be analyzed in a systematic and unified manner. Interfacial behavior between dissimilar crystallites and materials can also be handled in a natural way. A computational implementation of the theoretical framework is proposed, and a one-dimensional example is presented.

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Keywords

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