Design Debug and Design Fix Verification in a Failure Analysis Lab for a RF/IF Circuit for Cellular Applications With High Battery Save and Electrostatic Discharge Leakage: A Case Study

A cost-effective, BICMOS mixed signal, RF/IF integrated circuit for cellular phones had high leakage current in “battery save” conditions. It was also susceptible to Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). Our tasks were to identify the source of leakage, to identify the reason for the low Electrostatic Discharge protection, and to fix the design. Design edits of the circuits were accomplished using Focused Ion Beam tool. This approach helped in verifying the design fix on the silicon before committing to expensive masks. The capabilities of Focused Ion Beam systems are rapidly becoming critical for Failure Analysis and design edits of submicron technology devices.