Intermetallic compound formation in Ti/Al alloy and TiN/Al alloy thin-film couples has a strong influence on the electromigration lifetime of Al alloy interconnects used in integrated circuits. The morphologies and types of this compound are investigated for various thin-film couples subjected to different deposition and annealing conditions. The Al alloy/Tl couples were annealed at 390-degrees-C for one-half hour in a nitrogen ambient. It was found that the formation of the compound Al3Ti is continuous in the case of Al-1 weight percent (w/o) Cu/Ti which also shows a good aluminum [111] crystallographic texture, while such precipitate formation is discontinuous and is restricted to grain boundaries for an Al-1 w/o Cu-1 w/o Si/Ti couple which shows a poor aluminum [111] texture. A corresponding improvement in the electromigration lifetime was observed for the interconnects with the former metallization scheme. Also, in Ti/TiN/Al-1 w/o Cu-1 w/o Si structure, the precipitates were discontinuous and occurred only at the Al alloy grain boundaries. The effect of these compounds and the Al alloy texture on the electromigration lifetime of interconnects is discussed.