Differentiation between Artifacts and True Defects in 45 nm BEOL Structures in M-TLS Technique

Modulated Thermal Laser Stimulation (M-TLS) has been established as a key technique to accurately localize defects at elementary structure level, in deep submicron technologies. It has been achieved by Thermal Time Constant analysis (TTC) which allows the study of thermal exchange dynamics. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time the efficiency of this technique on 45 nm Back End Of the Line (BEOL) defective test structure on image mode, and we underline the efficiency of the developed technique to differentiate artifacts from true defects in 45 nm BEOL structures.