Patent ID: 7749778

Claim:
A method of monitoring and testing electro-migration and time dependent dielectric breakdown, comprising: forming an addressable wiring test array, said addressable wiring test array comprising: a plurality or horizontally disposed metal wiring; a plurality of segmented, vertically disposed probing wiring disposed between adjacent metal wiring of said plurality of horizontally disposed metal wiring; and a plurality of metal stud connectors connecting said probing wiring, wherein said metal wiring and said probing wiring being formed of a first metal level and said connections being formed of a second metal level, and wherein each probing wiring comprises at least one pad; performing a single row continuity/resistance check to determine which row of said metal wiring is open, said single row continuity/resistance check comprising: sequentially feeding an amount of test current into an input node of each row of said metal wiring; determining which rows of said metal wiring have sufficient connectivity; recording which rows of said metal wiring have an open circuit; and connecting ends of said rows of said metal wiring having sufficient connectivity using jumper probe cables to form a serpentine shape; performing a full serpentine continuity/resistance check, said full serpentine continuity/resistance check comprising: testing all of said plurality of metal wiring at once to determine which row of said metal wiring is open; determining a position of short defects, said determining a position of short defects comprising: holding a first column of said probe wiring at a first voltage level; sequentially activating each row of said metal wiring using a second voltage level to determine if a short defect occurs; recording a location of the short defect; and repeating said holding, said sequentially activating and said recording for each of a plurality of columns of said probe wiring; and performing a hierarchical metal wiring test to zoom in on said location of said short defect, said hierarchical metal wiring test comprising: interconnecting a plurality of vertical serpentine interconnects and a plurality of horizontal serpentine interconnects; placing a plurality of probe pads at edges of said wiring test array to test for short defects between said plurality of vertical serpentine interconnects and said plurality of horizontal serpentine interconnects; determining which of a plurality of sub-arrays in said wiring test array contains a short defect; and recording which sub-array in said plurality of sub-arrays contains the short defect.