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Localized conducting regions of silicon dioxide are a major source of failure of integrated circuits. By using liquid crystals in contact with the oxide, and simultaneously applying an electric field across such a sandwich structure, defective regions can be nondestructively identified. By examining the number of defects as a function of the polarity of the applied voltage, and time, it is possible to obtain information on the cause and nature of these localized regions of high conduction. Experiments of this type indicate that defects are frequently caused by imperfections in the silicon substrate and a model is proposed which accounts qualitatively for the results obtained with liquid crystal present.

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