Interposers used in 2.5D technologies introduce new challenges for Electric Fault Isolation (EFI) due to the multiple layers of silicon, metal layers, Through Silicon Vias (TSV), solder bumps and/or copper pillars making it hard for standard EFI techniques, such as thermal and optical techniques, to localize failures due to the opaqueness of these materials [1, 2, 3]. In this paper we show that shorts in 2.5D Integrated Circuits (IC) technologies can be localized accurately in x, y and z-direction using Magnetic Current Imaging (MCI) while injecting a low power current and showing that the materials used in 2.5D semiconductor manufacturing are fully transparent to magnetic fields.
High performance IC's have driven the semiconductor industry towards the sub-nanometer technology nodes for several years. At 16nm and beyond, the spatial resolution and sensitivity of some diagnostic equipment used for failure analysis have reached certain limitations. The accuracy of isolating a faulty signal in a tightly packed group of transistors in a die becomes more challenging. However, with the improvement of SIL (Solid Immersion Lens) based lens technology with higher N.A. (Numeric Aperture), combined with precision die thinning process, allowed some very promising results. This paper demonstrates successful diagnostic techniques utilizing the SIL lens and a variety of die thinning preparation techniques on 7nm and 16nm process nodes in both monolithic and 2.5D SSIT (Stacked Silicon Interconnect Technology) packages.
With the advent of three-dimensional stacked integrated-circuit (3D IC), the functionality, performance and power of semiconductor devices has been elevated to a new level. At the same time, the analytical techniques used in the evaluation of 3D IC must also advance in capability. Some new methodologies, based on FPGA products, have been developed to analyze 3D IC failures, all using conventional FA equipment and innovative techniques to achieve a short turn-around time and high success rate. A few case studies will be presented to show the effectiveness of the methodologies.
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