Thermal Failure Analysis of Functional Failures by IR Lock-in Thermal Emission

Abstract

Lock-in thermography (LIT), known as a powerful nondestructive fault localization technique, can also be used for microscopic failure analysis of integrated circuits (ICs). The dynamic characteristic of LIT in terms of measurement, imaging and sensitivity, is a distinct advantage compared to other thermal fault localization methods as well as other fault isolation techniques like emission microscopy. In this study, LIT is utilized for failure localization of units exhibiting functional failure. Results showed that LIT was able to point defects with emissions in the mid-wave infra-red (MWIR) range that Photo Emission Microscopy (PEM) with near infrared (NIR) to short- wave infra-red (SWIR) detection wavelength sensitivity cannot to detect.