Strategies for the Analysis of Single Unit Failures in Low Failure Rate Applications Available to Purchase

Many manufacturers in the microelectronics industry supply customers who increasingly demand ultra-low product failure rates. However, one of the least desirable scenarios for the microelectronic failure analyst is when analysis is required on a single failed unit. In these cases, the analyst loses the luxury of having “disposable” failing units in the analysis process. In the following discussion we present strategies to help the analyst more effectively find the failure mechanism for single unit failures.