The need to increase transistor packing density beyond Moore's Law and the need for expanding functionality, realestate management and faster connections has pushed the industry to develop complex 3D package technology which includes System-in-Package (SiP), wafer-level packaging, through-silicon-vias (TSV), stacked-die and flex packages. These stacks of microchips, metal layers and transistors have caused major challenges for existing Fault Isolation (FI) techniques and require novel non-destructive, true 3D Failure Localization techniques. We describe in this paper innovations in Magnetic Field Imaging for FI that allow current 3D mapping and extraction of geometrical information about current location for non-destructive fault isolation at every chip level in a 3D stack.

In the past couple years, Space Domain Reflectometry (SDR) has become a mainstream method to locate open defects among the major semiconductor manufacturers. SDR injects a radio frequency (RF) signal into the open trace creating a standing wave with a node at the open location. The magnetic field generated by the standing wave is imaged with a SQUID sensor using RF electronics. In this paper, we show that SDR can be used to non-destructively locate high resistance failures in Micro LeadFrame Packages (MLP).

Space Domain Reflectometry (SDR) is a newly developed non-destructive failure analysis (FA) technique for localizing open defects in both packages and dies through mapping in space domain the magnetic field produced by a radio frequency (RF) current induced in the sample, herein the name Space Domain Reflectometry. The technique employs a scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) RF microscope operating over a frequency range from 60 to 200 MHz. In this paper we demonstrate that SDR is capable of locating defective micro bumps in a flip-chip device.

We demonstrate the use of a near-field scanned microwave probe (NSMP) for failure analysis (FA) of parametric defects in Cu/low- k interconnect that leave no physical remnant (sometimes referred to as “non-visual defects”). This technique is rapid, quantitative, non-contact, and provides direct electrical measurements.