Geometric Effects on the Dislocation Nucleation Condition in Strained Electronics

Abstract

Dislocation loops may be nucleated from sharp geometric features in strained micro- and nanoelectronic devices. This process is investigated by a dissipative cohesive interface model which treats the dislocation core as a continuous, inhomogeneous lattice slip field. As a representative example, we calculate the critical stress for dislocation nucleation from edges/corners of a rectangular Si3N4 pad on Si substrate, as a function of geometric parameters such as the lengthto-height ratio and the three dimensional shape of the pad. Multiple dislocations and their shapes have also been simulated.