Abstract:Optical beam has been the veteran inspector of semiconductor wafer production house, ever since the birth of integrated circuit (IC). As technology and market place raise the bar on chip density, Moore's law stretches to the limit. Due to its inherent physical limitations, the optical method just cannot see the measuring rod of silicon industry getting recalibrated to finer nano-scales. Electron Beam Inspection (EBI), by virtue of its high resolution, has started to rule the nodes at 10 nm and below. As the geometries shrink, defects can reside deep within the structures. EBI can find those tiny defects, which otherwise go scot-free with optical tools. However, EBI suffers the handicap of poor performance and low throughput. It is therefore essential to complement EBI by judiciously crafting out the methods for getting the desired performance, a subject matter to which, this article is committed to. The research torchlights the critical EBI throughput problem to round-up "care-areas". Such guided and focused inspection augments throughput, thereby positioning EBI as the industrial grade candidate in finer nanometer segment. Besides gearing up to current trends, the smart EBI school of thought is inspirational, to fuel the aspirations for 1 nanometer scale.
With the increase in the complexity of the semiconductor device processes and increase in the challenge to satisfy high market demands, enhancement in yield has become a crucial factor. Discovering and reacting to yield problems emerging at the end of the production line may cause unbearable yield loss leading to larger times to market. Thus, time and cost involved in fault isolation may be significantly shortened by effectively utilizing the fault diagnosis technology and supporting yield improvements. Hence for yield analysis, a highly integrated data network with software analysis tools have been established to reduce the fault analysis time. Synopsys Avalon, a product used for fault localization is described in this paper which aids in achieving better integrated circuit yields. This paper also illustrates various fault localization techniques for faster problem identification and discusses a few analytical tools like photon emission microscope and transmission emission microscope for faster determination of device failures.
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