Near-field detection of photon emission from silicon with 30 nm spatial resolution

Isakov, Dmitry; Tio, A.A.B.; Geinzer, T.; Phang, J.C.H.; Zhang, Y.; Balk, L.J.

doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2008.07.021

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…A favoured technique for non-destructive failure analysis and reliability investigation of semiconductor devices at electric breakdown is Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM) [9]. Local electron temperature distribution within state-of-the-art processors and integrated circuits can be characterized with nanometer resolution by Scanning Near-Field Photon Emission Microscopy (SNPEM) using a Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope (SNOM) [10]. To get access to the electric field strength the charge carrier temperature is determined more efficiently by energy-dispersive PEM (EDPEM) resulting in a better accuracy and higher signal to noise ratio [11] in comparison to conventional spectral respectively wavelength-dispersive measurements.…”

Section: Complementary Sem and Spm Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced SEM/SPM microscopy

Heiderhoff

2012

2012 19th IEEE International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits

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Advanced SEM/SPM microscopy will expand the application fields in failure analysis and reliability investigation, because the recognition of defects and their subsequent characterization have to be carried out with highest spatial resolution to ensure that even smallest structures with modified material properties can be evaluated. Promising for future applications is the fact that the used probes simultaneously can either be used as sensors, giving access to a vast variety of material properties, or as actuators, which can deliberately modify samples properties.

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Section: Complementary Sem and Spm Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced SEM/SPM microscopy

Heiderhoff

2012

2012 19th IEEE International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits

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“…The Scanning Near-Field Photon Emission Microscopy (SNPEM) technique is able to resolve the nanometer dimensions of state-of-the-art processors and integrated circuits [2]. However, for failure analysis and reliability investigation, the localization of the defects is not the only decisive factor for a detailed understanding of the activities inside the device.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of the local electric field strength by Energy dispersive Photon Emission Microscopy

Geinzer

Heiderhoff

Phang

et al. 2010

2010 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium

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Energy-dispersive Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM) allows the local electron temperature distribution to be characterized with high accuracy and sensitivity. The suitability and potential of this new technique for failure analysis and reliability investigation of semiconductor devices are demonstrated by the spatially resolved analysis of non-uniform breakdowns. With state-of-the-art devices in nanometer dimensions the charge carrier transport is analyzed in order to determine the electric field strength distribution.

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“…A Scattering Dielectric Probe (SDP) has been proposed to overcome this limitation [9]. For the SDP the coating is not used and the base aperture is determined solely by the geometry of the probe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As most of the photon emissions from silicon devices have energy below the silicon bandgap, a NIR photomultiplier with a wavelength range from 1000 nm to 1400 nm was used. Detailed description of the detection unit can be found in [9]. II.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of scanning near-field photon emission microscopy

Isakov

Tan

Phang

et al. 2009

2009 16th IEEE International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits

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In this paper, the application of scanning near-field photon emission microscopy for imaging photon emission sites is demonstrated. Photon emissions generated by a Fin-FET test structure with one metallization layer are imaged with spatial resolution of 50 nm using scattering dialectic probe. The potential applications and limitations of the technique are discussed. I. IntroductionCurrent fault localization techniques have limited resolution and sensitivity parameters, which are inadequate for the current technology node whereby substantial searching is still required for post-localization [1]. One of these techniques is Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM), which is an important tool for the localization of hot carrier sites and faults in silicon based integrated circuits [2]. The spatial resolution of current PEM tools, which are operated in the optical far-field, is limited by optical diffraction. The theoretical spatial resolution according to Rayleigh Criterion is about half the wavelength used but the practical spatial resolution is closer to one wavelength due to instrumentation constraints. For silicon devices, the significant contribution of photon emission occurs in the near-infrared (NIR) and the practical spatial resolution of far-field NIR PEM systems is limited to about 111m. Recent developments in using solid immersion lenses in PEM have improved the spatial resolution to around 230 nm [3]. However, for a critical defect size of 45 nm at the 90 nm technology node [4], the desired spatial resolution should be better than 50 nm.In our earlier work, a Scanning Near-field Photon Emission Microscope (SNPEM) was introduced [5]. It was used for imaging photon emissions from silicon devices in the visible spectral range from 400 to 900 nm [5]. SNPEM is based on a collection mode of a Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope (SNOM). In SNOM, a sub-wavelength aperture is used for near-field light detection and the dimension of the aperture determines the resolution of the SNOM [6]. The method of collecting photons in the near-field has been proposed [7], but the technique has not been developed. A probable reason could be the low sensitivity due to extreme attenuation of light intensity [8]. Our SNPEM system avoids this limitation and demonstrates a much higher sensitivity at a similar resolution. In our previous work, the improvement was achieved with a protrusion type probe (PTP), which had a

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Near-field detection of photon emission from silicon with 30 nm spatial resolution

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

Advanced SEM/SPM microscopy

Advanced SEM/SPM microscopy

Determination of the local electric field strength by Energy dispersive Photon Emission Microscopy

Applications of scanning near-field photon emission microscopy

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