Super-resolution laser probing of integrated circuits using algorithmic methods.

ABSTRACT: Laser probing remains invaluable to the semiconductor industry for isolating and diagnosing defects in silicon transistors in integrated circuits during electrical stress tests. However, continuous device miniaturization below the 20 nm technology node has crammed multiple transistors within the focal spot of the laser beam, resulting in signal crosstalk, poor beam positioning accuracy and degraded fault isolation capabilities. The challenge is analogous to focusing attention to a single speaker in a crowd despite the multiple simultaneous conversations in the background. Through algorithms introduced in this patented work, consisting of cross-correlations, clustering, and our previously developed combinational logic analysis, we achieved beam positioning accuracy to better than 10 nm, ext

SUBMITTER: Ravikumar VK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9440222 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature