Electron beam testing: Methods and applications

Feuerbaum, H.P.

doi:10.1002/sca.4950050103

Cited by 76 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Since the fault contrast signal simply replaces the voltage contrast signal as is enters the standard SEM display electronics, a fault contrast user can use all the features of a voltage contrast SEM. One example of these, a fault contrast logic state map [3], would be an extremely quick and compact way to examine bus faults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fault Contrast: A New Voltage Contrast VLSI Diagnosis Technique

Stivers

Ferguson

1986

24th International Reliability Physics Symposium

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

sorted out and discarded, the better.Fault contrast is a differential analog technique that yields high-quality voltage contrast images of integrated circuit (IC) pass vs. fail operation.Fault contrast is applicable where the IC failure mode is sensitive to an external parameter, e.g. clock frequency or supply voltage. Fault contrast requires only simple and inexpensive analog signal processing. We demonstrate fault contrast with an analysis of an Intel 80286 microprocessor failure. Introducti onA major class of IC failures are those in which the IC can be made to pass or fail by varying an external parameter, e.g. clock frequency or supply voltage. These failure modes reflect design and process marginalities that must be characterized to optimize IC performance and yield. This paper describes a combination of voltage contrast measurement and special IC test procedures that quickly finds the the origin of failures of this class. This technique, fault contrast, yields images in which failing nodes stand out against all others. Fault contrast is a purely analog technique requiring only a minor modification to a conventional stroboscopic voltage contrast scanning electron microscope (SEM).The fault contrast signal is a measure of voltage differences between sequential program executions while the IC is caused to alternately pass and fail by the variation of an external parameter. This parameter can be supply voltage, clock frequency, input voltage level, programming voltage, illumination, etc. The only limitation on the parameter is that it must be alterable with every execution of the diagnostic program.Fault contrast is therefore applicable to an extensive class of vol tage contrast applications. Fault contrast yields the results of digital frame subtraction, however, fault contrast requires only simple analog signal processing and simple logic to implement. In addition, fault contrast is immune to many artifacts that tend to complicate techniques based on digital frame subtraction.Fault contrast is a variation of voltage contrast, an electron beam probing technique that can probe internal nodes of an IC without contact, destruction, or capacitive loading. Several groups have developed and reported on voltage contrast technology [ 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. The power of voltage contrast lies in its ability to access most nodes of an IC by merely deflecting an electron beam to those nodes. SEMs can image the voltages on an IC by rastering the electron beam over a field on the IC. The imaging mode is so easy to use that large amounts of voltage data of nodes in the neighborhood of the failing nodes are usually acquired during a typical voltage contrast analysis. The acquisition of these extraneous data does have practical consequences. These extraneous data must be subsequently sorted out to reveal the failure. This can take more time than the data acquisition itself. Furthermore, the data acquisition speed itself is limited by the electron beam current, which can average as low as 1 pa in the low-duty-cycle strobos...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fault Contrast: A New Voltage Contrast VLSI Diagnosis Technique

Stivers

Ferguson

1986

24th International Reliability Physics Symposium

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…4,5 Direct electro-optic detection in silicon is not possible because of its centrosymmetric crystal structure. Alternative techniques used for measuring high-speed electrical signals in silicon IC's include the voltage-contrast scanning electron microscope 6 ͑SEM͒ and the scanning photoexcitation probe. 7 However, the voltage-contrast SEM has a low sensitivity and the photoexcitation probe, which uses an above-band-gap optical source to perturb photoconductively internal nodes within an integrated circuit, is invasive and only measures the logic states of the circuit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Static and high-frequency electric fields in silicon MOS and MS structures probed by optical second-harmonic generation

et al. 1997

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a comprehensive analysis of the effects of static and high-frequency electric fields in silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor ͑MOS͒ and metal-semiconductor ͑MS͒ structures on optical second-harmonic generation ͑SHG͒. First, a general Green's function formalism developed by Sipe ͓J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 4, 481 ͑1987͔͒ is applied to determine the voltage dependence of the SHG response from planar MOS structures. This approach takes directly into account the spatial distribution of the dc-electric-field across the silicon spacecharge region. Predictions of the theory are in good agreement with experimental results of the SHG bias dependence from MS and MOS structures. Furthermore, the azimuthal SHG anisotropy from Si͑111͒ MOS and Si͑001͒ MS interfaces is determined in the presence of a reverse bias allowing a clear separation of various anisotropic contributions resulting from inhomogeneous bias fields and anisotropic (2) or (3) tensor elements. Finally, we demonstrate the capability of optical SHG for time-resolved measurements of free-running GHz signals on silicon millimeter-wave devices. Consequences for circuit testing are discussed.

show abstract

“…There are many good reviews to be found in literature on Electron Beam Testing (EBT) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. E-beam testing started as a research laboratory technique [9] and advanced rapidly to become an indispensable analytical tool.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the boxcar averaging techniques [5] improve the noisy measurements the unduly longtime of each data point measurement dissuaded many commercial EBT vendors to improve the temporal resolution [1]. 5.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron Beam Testing And Its Applications To VLSI Technology

et al. 1988

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the recent advances in instrumentation, automation and spectrometer design, the Electron Beam Tester is fast becoming a standard tool for design verification and failure analysis of Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit (VLSI) technology products. This paper presents a brief overview of the principles of operation and a discussion of the different testing modes.The application of voltage contrast to VLSI technology is illustrated with a few typical examples taken from failure analysis and design verification stages of memory and microprocessor products.Present limitations and future trends of Electron Beam Testing are discussed.

show abstract

Electron beam testing: Methods and applications

Cited by 76 publications

References 21 publications

Fault Contrast: A New Voltage Contrast VLSI Diagnosis Technique

Fault Contrast: A New Voltage Contrast VLSI Diagnosis Technique

Static and high-frequency electric fields in silicon MOS and MS structures probed by optical second-harmonic generation

Electron Beam Testing And Its Applications To VLSI Technology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About