Scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) is a 2-D carrier and/or dopant concentration profiling technique under development that utilizes the excellent spatial resolution of scanning probe microscopy. However, PV-SCM has limited capability to achieve the goal due to inherent "plane" trait. On top of that, deeper concentration profile just like deep N-well is also one of restrictions to use. For representing above contents more clearly, this paper presents a few cases that demonstrate the alternated and optimized application of PV-SCM and X-SCM. The case studies concern Joint Test Action Group failure and stand-by failure. These cases illustrate that the correct selection from either plane-view or cross-sectional SCM analysis according to the surrounding of defect could help to exactly and rapidly diagnose the failure mechanism. Alternating and optimizing PV-SCM and X-SCM techniques to navigate various implant issue could provide corrective actions that suit local circumstance of defects and identify the root cause.

In this paper, we focus on how to identify non-visual failures by way of electrical analysis because some special failures cannot be observed by SEM (scanning electron microscopy) or TEM (transmission electron microscopy) even when they are precisely located by other analytical instrumentation or are symptomatic of an authentic or single suspect. The methodology described here was developed to expand the capabilities of nano-probing via C-AFM (conductive atomic forced microscopy), which can acquire detailed electrical data, and combining the technique with reasoned simulation using various mathematic models emulating all of the significant failure characteristics. Finally, a case study is presented to verify that such defect modes can be identified even when general PFA (physical failure analysis) cannot be implemented for investigating non-visual failure mechanisms.

Highly-integrated radio frequency and mixed-mode devices that are manufactured in deep-submicron or more advanced CMOS processes are becoming more complex to analyze. The increased complexity presents us with many eccentric failure mechanisms that are uniquely different from traditional failure mechanisms found during failure analysis on digital logic applications. This paper presents a novel methodology to overcome the difficulties and discusses two case studies which demonstrate the application of the methodology. Through the case studies, the methodology was proven to be a successful approach. It is also proved how this methodology would work for such non-recognizable failures.

With the evolution of advanced process technology, failure analysis has become more and more difficult because more defects are of the non-visual type (very tiny or even invisible defects) from new failure mechanisms. In this article, a novel and effective methodology which couples the conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM) with nano-probing technique is proposed to reveal some particular failure modes which were not observable and difficult to identify with traditional physical failure analysis techniques. The capability of coupling C-AFM with nano-probing technique is used to distinguish cases which suffer general junction leakage or gate leakage from those that form the fake junction leakage or gate leakage cases. C-AFM can detect the abnormal contacts quickly, and nano-probing could provide the precise electrical characteristic further. Then, combining these variant measuring results, the favorable tactics can be adopted to deal with different states.

This paper presents a judicious reasoning method by coupling passive voltage contrast (PVC) with scanning probe microscopy (SPM) for revealing particular invisible defect modes, which were imperceptible to observe and very difficult to identify by means of traditional physical failure analysis techniques. In order to certify this compound method, it is applied to an implant issue as a case study. Through solving this particular defect mode, whose exact failure position could not be determined even with the most sensitive PVC or high-resolution SPM current mapping, the procedures and contentions are illustrated further. The significance of the reasoning method is based on electrical characterization and differential analysis. By coupling PVC with SPM, the capability to identify tiny defects is not limited to just distinguishing leakage or high-resistance under contacts. PVC can detect abnormal N+ contacts due to improper implanting, and SPM can provide the precise electrical characteristics.