This columnn explores the idea that insights into the root cause of increasingly complex failures may be hidden in unanswered questions from past analyses, indicating that there might be more value in previous files than once thought.

This column discusses the basic knowledge and skills needed by failure analysis engineers, with a focus on problem-solving ability.

This article explains how oxide traps and mobile ions can lead to timing and function failures in ICs and provides insights and advice on how to identify and deal with potential problems.

Stress voiding has re-emerged as a concern in advanced metal systems with their reduced dimensions and multilayer designs. Unless analysts are familiar with the physics and history of stress voids in ICs, chances are they will go unnoticed. This article discusses the basic cause of stress cracks and the clues that give them away.

The tools of the trade in semiconductor failure analysis have advanced rapidly over the past few decades, bringing major improvements in imaging, deprocessing, and materials analysis. In contrast to the progress made in physical FA, little attention has been given to the failure analysis process itself. This article shows through case studies how simple oversights and misunderstandings can lead to costly mistakes. It also defines basic FA concepts and presents a failure analysis sequence, describing each step along with common pitfalls and best practices.

Electromigration is a wearout mechanism that contributes significantly to IC failures. This article discusses the causes and effects of this often overlooked failure mode and presents practical guidelines to help analysts determine whether or not electromigration is the cause of a particular failure. It also discusses the differences between aluminum and copper electromigration.

Diagnostic failure analysis tools provide essential information about where a defect is located and what materials are present, but that information must be combined with other data to establish cause and corrective action. Mistakes made at this stage of the investigation can be extremely costly. This article identifies some of the pitfalls and traps that failure analysts can fall into and explains how to avoid them. It provides three examples of misdiagnosed failures and helps readers to see what led analysts astray.

This article provides an introduction to liquid crystal hot spot detection and its use in electronic device failure analysis. It describes how liquid crystal responds to temperature changes and the equipment typically used to observe it. It explains how to apply these materials to test specimens, how to optimize measurement sensitivity, and how to interpret the results. It also presents hot spot detection procedures and describes failure scenarios for which the method is particularly effective.