Electromigration: The time bomb in deep-submicron ICs

Electromigration is a ticking time bomb IC design, which can trigger a system failure at some undefined future time. The phenomenon is particularly likely to afflict the thin, tightly spaced power-distribution line of deep-submicron design. One of the reasons of these problems is that electromigration failures cannot be prevented by production testing. This paper discusses how to pinpoint where the problem is likely to occur, and what to do about it.