ON THE CORROSION OF MATERIALS IN THE FIELD OF MICROELECTRONICS

The reliability of microelectronic components and devices is also determined by the corrosion behaviour of the applied materials. Because of the very small dimensions of the resulting corrosion systems, the transferability both of the experimental methods and of the interpretation of results, known from macrodimensioned corrosion systems, is only possible with some restrictions. Micro-dimensioned corrosion systems, occurring in the field of microelectronics, are characterized by a complex mechanical, thermal and corrosive load, which can change very rapidly over time, by the presence of different, galvanic coupled metals and at least by an electrical load of the corroding material. This report describes the corrosion types and problems of microelectronical corrosion systems, concerning the experimental simulation of corrosion reactions and the evaluation of the results.