PHYSICAL ANALYSIS (CONT)
C. Cross-sectional observation (FIB, SEM, and TEM)
Grinding/polishing
- Initial rough grinding scrapes off surrounding part then use finer abrasives,
rotating the direction of grinding by 90 degrees to smooth the former grinding
marks.
- Vertical Grinding small area of observation
- Angle Grinding preferable grinding process
Cleaving
- Cleaving the chip using a diamond cutter to observe the fine structure of metallic
wiring, pnjunctions and transistors.
Focused Ion Beam (FIB)
- It is a technique used particularly in the semiconductor industry, materials
science and increasingly in the biological field for site-specific analysis,
deposition, and ablation of materials.
- Ion beam source is usually a liquid metal ion source. The tip radius of this cone is
extremely small (~2 nm). The huge electric field at this small tip (greater than 1 x
108 volts per centimeter) causes ionization and field emission of the gallium
atoms.
- FIB systems operate in a similar fashion to a scanning electron microscope (SEM)
except, rather than a beam of electrons and as the name implies, FIB systems use
a finely focused beam of ions (usually gallium) that can be operated at low beam
currents for imaging or high beam currents for site specific sputtering or milling.
Transmission
- It is a
which a
Electron Microscopy
microscopy technique
in
beam
of electrons is
transmitted through an ultrathin
specimen, interacting with the
specimen as it passes through. An image is formed from the interaction of the
electrons transmitted through the specimen; the image is magnified and focused
onto an imaging device, such as
a fluorescent screen, on a layer
of phot
ographic film, or to be detected
by
a
sensor such as a CCD camera.
D. Point of Observation
Breaking, short circuit, and leakage by excess voltage or current
- Abnormal external voltage or current can melt the metal wiring and polycrystal
silicon resistors. In some cases where the current is very high, the internal lead
wires blow out. Abnormal alloy generation is occasionally observed at a pnjunction (between emitter and collector for a bipolar transistor).
Breaking of internal lead wires
- This failure is located by X-ray then investigated using a microscope after the
package is removed. If the wires are detached from the bonding, the alloy
formation of the detached part and misalignment of bonding should be checked.
Gold and aluminum forms various Au-Al compounds at high temperatures.
Corrosion of aluminum wiring
- Penetration of moisture, phosphoric acid (P2O5 disengaged from passivation
film) and chlorine ion, insufficient chemical treatment in process, cell effect and
electric field caused by contact of different metals can corrode aluminum, which
results in disconnection. In many disconnection cases, aluminum elutes
completely and sometimes a short circuit occurs between adjacent wiring.
Corroded aluminum often turns black. It can be easily found by observation of the
chip surface using an optical microscope.
Chip cracks
- Heat stress often causes cracks in a silicon chip, which result in disconnection,
short circuit, and leakage. These cracks are random lines crossing the chip
surface, which is sometimes missed in observation with low magnification. The
passivation film must be removed to observe the cracks because cracks can be
limited in this film. Observation with an infrared microscope makes strain around
the crack more distinguishable.
Mask misalignment
- Misalignment in diffusion, contact holes, or metal wiring can cause various
failures. To investigate this defect, the alignment of pn-junctions, contact holes,
and wiring must be checked carefully.
Via-contact failure
- This failure includes disconnection or ohmic failure at a step of a contact hole,
and increased contact resistance due to the generation of a high-resistance layer
and a closed via-contact hole caused by an inappropriate wafer fabrication
process. Observation of a cross section using FIB is useful for investigating this
type of failure.
Particle
- A particle on the chip surface or inside the chip can cause failure. Locating the
layer where the particle exists and analyzing its composition may provide some
clue to estimate the process and reason of contamination. Observation of a cross
section using FIB clarifies the contaminated layer. Electron Probe Micro-Analysis
(EPMA) or scanning auger microscopy (SAM) is useful for analyzing the particle
contamination.
Electrostatic discharge
The gate oxide film of metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) is very thin and has low
dielectric resistance. Electrostatic pulses generated by a human body or inspection
instruments can break the device. This breakage can be detected by the increase of
input current or change in Vth. In case of a bipolar transistor, the junction
deteriorates and a part of the junction melts.
Electro/stress migration
- Excess current or stress to aluminum wiring can cause a hillock or voiding. A
hillock may result in a short circuit within a layer or between layers. Voiding can
lead to increased wiring resistance or disconnection. It is easy to locate the
disconnection spot with electron beam testing. It is also possible to locate the
voiding or disconnection using heat by laser irradiation, in which changes in
resistance or thermoelectromotion of aluminum wiring are detected.
Junction failure
- Stress by oxide film disengagement or abnormal growth of alloy, contamination,
and crystal defects of silicon substrate can cause defective junctions. The junction
is observed from the chip surface or the cross section depending on the type of
failure. Wright-etching after the junction is exposed facilitates the observation.
Oxide film breakdown
- Destruction of an oxide film occurs when a strong electric field stress is applied to
a transistor or capacitor block of an LSI device. Possible causes of the stress are
external noise such as ESD, a design-based defect, a defect in the wafer process,
time degradation, and other various factors. Since the symptom of an oxide film
breakdown is a leakage failure, light emission analysis, OBIC (OBIRCH), or the
like are effective methods.
(3) IMPURITY AND COMPOSITION ANALYSIS
Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA)
- It is an analytical tool used to non-destructively determine the chemical
composition of small volumes of solid materials. It works similarly to a scanning
electron microscope: the sample is bombarded with an electron beam, emitting xrays at wavelengths characteristic to the elements being analyzed.
Scanning Auger Microscopy (SAM)
- SAM is more sensitive to the surface state than any other type of surface analysis.
It is effective for investigating contamination of the chip surface. This method
combined with spatter etching enables analysis under the surface.
X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
- It is a surface-sensitive quantitative spectroscopic technique that measures the
elemental composition at the parts per thousand range, empirical, chemical
state and electronic state of the elements that exist within a material.
XPS is a surface chemical analysis technique that can be used to analyze
the surface chemistry of a material in its as-received state, or after some
treatment, for example: fracturing, cutting or scraping in air or UHV to expose the
bulk chemistry, ion beam etching to clean off some or all of the surface
contamination (with mild ion etching) or to intentionally expose deeper layers of
the sample (with more extensive ion etching) in depth-profiling XPS, exposure to
heat to study the changes due to heating, exposure to reactive gases or solutions,
exposure to ion beam implant, exposure to ultraviolet light.
Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS)
- is a technique used to analyze the composition of solid surfaces and thin
films by sputtering the surface of the specimen with a focused primary ion
beam and collecting and analyzing ejected secondary ions.
- SIMS can analyze any elements including hydrogen and helium, which the SAM
and EPMA cannot analyze, with a high sensitivity of several ppbs. This method
can analyze elements under the sample surface with the spatter effects by ion
beam. The SIMS is the most sensitive surface analysis method.
ESTABLISHMENT OF FAILURE MECHANISM
A careful investigation is required to determine the abnormalities discovered by various
failure analysis techniques as the true cause of the device failure. The investigation must be
conducted from a variety of angles to prove a consistent explanation of the device failure in
terms of the electrical characteristics of the failure identified. It is rare that all of the detected
abnormalities are directly linked to the failure, and an incorrect judgment results in incorrect
corrective action being taken without any improvement.
