Preparation, Imaging, and Design Extraction of the Front-End-of-Line and Middle-of-Line in a 14 nm Node FinFET Device

Abstract

This paper presents the first design reconstruction on the Front-End-of-Line and Middle-of-Line layers of a 14 nm node FinFET design. To accomplish this, a large region of interest within a custom designed 14 nm node ASIC device was delayered, imaged, and analyzed to reconstruct the GDSII design file and verify a 100% match to the golden GDSII design. This work leveraged previous developments in each stage of the front half of the cooperative Verification and Validation (V&V) workflow combined with new techniques and processes developed for processing 3D architecture FET devices. We have demonstrated the critical first step to performing a full V&V workflow on an advanced technology node device, starting from the fabricated silicon device to the design extraction. The process development knowledge gained while reaching this milestone will further accelerate future advancements toward providing trusted advanced technology node devices in a timely manner. <br>