Failure analysis (FA) becomes increasingly crucial for semiconductor industries with the scale-down and larger integration of devices. In order to overcome the limitation of traditional optical resolution for FA techniques, this article proposed an effective method of precise positioning of circuit defect based on localized probing technique, nano-probing and electron beam absorbed current (EBAC). Open circuit, short circuit and gate/capacitor oxide defects were the most common failures in IC manufactures, therefore representative examples based on these failures were employed to illustrate the analysis procedure and effectiveness of the proposed method. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) results were presented to verify the accuracy of the positioning. It was demonstrated that the proposed precise positioning method was able to accurately locate the defect position, and was useful for determining the failure mechanism as well. The method showed great potential for improving the success rate of FA for semiconductor devices.

中文翻译：

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基于纳米探测和EBAC的缺陷失效分析精确定位方法


随着设备规模的缩小和集成度的提高，故障分析 (FA) 对于半导体行业变得越来越重要。为了克服传统光学分辨率对FA技术的限制，本文提出了一种基于局部探测技术、纳米探测和电子束吸收电流（EBAC）的电路缺陷精确定位的有效方法。开路、短路和栅极/电容器氧化物缺陷是IC制造中最常见的故障，因此采用基于这些故障的代表性示例来说明该方法的分析过程和有效性。扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、聚焦离子束（FIB）和透射电子显微镜（TEM）结果验证了定位的准确性。事实证明，所提出的精确定位方法能够准确定位缺陷位置，并且对于确定失效机制也很有用。该方法在提高半导体器件 FA 的成功率方面显示出巨大的潜力。