Fault isolation in semiconductor product, process, physical and package failure analysis: Importance and overview

Chin, J.M.; Narang, Vinod; Zhao, Xiaole; Tay, M. Y.; Phoa, Angeline; Ravikumar, Venkat; Hnin, Lwin; Lim, Soon Huat; Teo, Chea Wei; Zulkifli, Syahirah; Ong, Mei Chyn; Tan, M.C.

doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2011.06.061

Cited by 32 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For the MOSFET, when the device is in the saturation region, the drain current is i D as follows [22]:…”

Section: Model Of Tlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Study on Automatic Detection of Hard Defects in Integrated Circuits Based on Thermal Laser Stimulation

Cai

et al. 2023

Photonics

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Locating the fault position is a crucial part of the failure mechanism analysis of integrated circuits. This paper proposes a hard defect locating system based on Thermal Laser Stimulation (TLS) technology. The equation for laser-induced changes in the electrical parameters of semiconductor devices is a good guide to the hardware and software design of the hard defect locating system. The scanning mode of fast total scanning combined with slow point-to-point scanning can quickly locate abnormal areas. A modified median absolute difference (MAD) method is applied to the extraction of anomalous data. The system software can automatically and collaboratively control the 3D mobile station, laser, and signal acquisition unit. It also can intuitively display the distribution of abnormal points on the infrared image. Using a failure MRAM chip and a good one to conduct a comparative test, the abnormal points distributed on the infrared image of the chip indicate that the failure area is in the digital module or eFuse module of the chip, and the Emission Microscopy (EMMI) experiment also verifies the accuracy of the test system.

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“…For the MOSFET, when the device is in the saturation region, the drain current is i D as follows [22]:…”

Section: Model Of Tlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Study on Automatic Detection of Hard Defects in Integrated Circuits Based on Thermal Laser Stimulation

Cai

et al. 2023

Photonics

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“…Probing is one of the technique that can measure the performance of transistor, resistance between two metal lines, confirmation of blown and unblown fuse and other passive component such as resistor, capacitor leakage current measurements. 74…”

Section: Hardware Trojanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Counterfeit devices with malicious modifications can result in undesired functionality of an IC or allow sensitive information to be leaked through side channels or back-doors. 74 The same inspection methods that are able to ensure security can also be implemented to duplicate a design through reverse engineering. X-ray methods based on synchotron sources are able to quickly image an entire IC and be used to reverse engineer an IC design with extreme precision.…”

Section: Integrated Circuitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of THz-based semiconductor assurance

True

Jessurun

et al. 2021

Opt. Eng.

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Terahertz radiation for inspection and fault detection has been of interest for the semiconductor industry since the first generation and detection of THz signals. Until recent hardware advances, THz systems lacked the signal quality and reliability for use as an effective nondestructive testing (NDT) method. Incremental advances in THz sources, detectors, and signal processing resulted in the successful applied-industrial use of THz NDT techniques on carbon fiber laminates, automotive coatings, and for detection of counterfeit pharmaceutical tablets. Semiconductor inspection and verification methods ensure the functionality and thereby safety of vital electronics for several critical industries. For this reason, the reliability and verification of a THz NDT method must exceed currently used inspection systems. With recent laboratory access to THz radiation, THz inspection methods are often compared with existing optical, electrical, and volumetric semiconductor verification techniques for their production monitoring and failure analysis viability. This review will cover THz techniques and their applications at the printed circuit board (PCB), integrated circuit (IC), and transistor/gate scales. The THz radiation gap spans between optical and electronic ranges with a millimeter-sized wavelength allowing for adequate penetration of plastic and ceramic and semiconductor materials. THz radiation can be used to determine structural features, electrical signatures in the THz range, and chemical information simultaneously. Cost and environmental limitations restricted the ability for THz NDT semiconductor inspection methods to escape the lab and succeed in the dynamic environment of a semiconductor fabrication environment. Hybridized metrology methods incorporating information from multiple inspection tools are a regime where THz spectral and structural data can be combined with existing methods such as optical, x-ray, or E-beam. THz can be used initially to offer support to the complex failure analysis and verification requirements of the semiconductor industry from nanoscale to macroscale features and components. For THz systems to become independent inspection tools used for semiconductor production monitoring, in the lab or fab, this will require a confident level of statistical process control for THz signal generation, detection, or processing. Applied industrial semiconductor device inspection will likely be a result of a combination of research into THz hardware, reconstruction techniques, and the widespread application of machine learning techniques. Many breakthroughs occurred over the years to enable successful nondestructive characterization and inspection of semiconductor devices from the nanoscale transistors to fully packaged integrated circuits and assembled PCBs.

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“…Those devices with open or short-contact failures including those failing electrical test are sorting out from the good devices at the final electrical testing of power semiconductor [13][14][15]. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is widely used in the electronics industry such as to detect failure in semiconductor components [16][17][18][19], characterizing the circuit board [20], measuring the C-V characteristics of semiconductor chip [21] or even detecting fatigue in the solder joint [22,23]. TDR is superior as compared with other non-destructive techniques such as scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) and X-ray inspection [16,17] because on top of TDR is a non-destructive test; it is also capable of pointing out the type of failure (short, open, capacitive or inductive characteristics) based on the impedance mismatched.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison Study of Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) Measurement Methods for Detecting Wire Interconnect Related Open-Contact and Short-Contact Failures in Power Semiconductor

Ng¹,

Soo

2022

Trends Sci

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Open-contact and short-contact are 2 common failures that causing power semiconductor to have electrical malfunctioned. One of the reasons of these failures relate to defective in the wire interconnect. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is a common method widely used to detect failures in semiconductor devices. This study focused on comparing 3 different TDR measurement methods in detecting wire related open and short failure for power semiconductor, namely Single-Ended method, Single-Pin Grounded method and All-Pin Grounded method. A special custom-made jig is used during the measurements to ensure all the methods are measured under the same conditions. This study shows that all the 3 TDR measurement methods are able to detect wire related open and short failures in power semiconductor. The Single-Pin grounded method is the preferred method because it is easy in term of setup and having the good capability in detecting both open and short failures. Furthermore, the study also shows that the TDR is able to detect the location of open and short failures that is not able to achieve by using the conventional electrical testing method. HIGHLIGHTS Comparison study on Single-Ended, Single-Pin Grounded and All-Pin Grounded TDR measurement methods in detecting open-contact and short-contact failure in power semiconductor The study shows Single-Pin Grounded TDR measurement method is the preferred method since it is easy in term of setup and able to detect both the open-contact and short-contact failures TDR measurement method is also able to locate the location of open-contact and short-contact failures GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

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Fault isolation in semiconductor product, process, physical and package failure analysis: Importance and overview

Cited by 32 publications

References 13 publications

Preliminary Study on Automatic Detection of Hard Defects in Integrated Circuits Based on Thermal Laser Stimulation

Preliminary Study on Automatic Detection of Hard Defects in Integrated Circuits Based on Thermal Laser Stimulation

Review of THz-based semiconductor assurance

Comparison Study of Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) Measurement Methods for Detecting Wire Interconnect Related Open-Contact and Short-Contact Failures in Power Semiconductor

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