LASER techniques are widely used for pre-opening in combination with a final manual or automated wet chemistry decapsulation. Even if most of the ICs may be opened today, and if opening the recently introduced Ag wires packages have been solved with novel chemical recipes, the need for a greener and safer solution is still there. Plasma techniques combined with LASER can be a promising solution to these challenges. In this paper, after a presentation of the state of the art of the different techniques available in laboratories nowadays, the latest solution combining LASER and acid or plasma etching is presented. The paper compares the results obtained with these solutions on Cu an Ag wires devices with pros and cons for each solution. The results presented show the benefits, the constraints and the limitations of each technique regarding the different types of wires used in industry.

Magnetic field based techniques have shown great capabilities for investigation of current flows in integrated circuits (ICs). After reviewing the performances of SQUID, GMR (hard disk head technologies) and MTJ existing sensors, we will present results obtained on various case studies. This comparison will show the benefit of each approach according to each case study (packaged devices, flip-chip circuits, …). Finally we will discuss on the obtained results to classify current techniques, optimal domain of applications and advantages.