Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T04:19:46.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Location of Current Carrying Faults in Integrated Circuits by Magnetic Force Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

A. Pu ,
A. Rahman ,
D.J. Thomson  and
G.E. Bridges
A. Pu
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 5V6
A. Rahman
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 5V6
D.J. Thomson
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 5V6
G.E. Bridges
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 5V6
Get access

Abstract

In Integrated Circuits failure analysis excessive power supply current flowing into the IC is often used to indicate the presence of a faulty device. Location of these faulty devices can be problematic as the devices are often buried under several layers of conducting interconnect. By imaging the magnetic field produced by current flowing in an IC a faulty device can be located. In this paper we present experimental results on imaging current-carrying faults on integrated circuits using Magnetic force microscopy. We have experimentally determined that MFM is capable of measuring currents as small as 1 to 10 microampere on ICs in a 30 Hz bandwidth. We have carried out modeling calculations comparing the simulation results with experimental results using realistic MFM tip geometry. From these results we have devised a method to accurately locate the position of the internal current carrying faults from MFM images with micrometer uncertainty.

Keywords

MFMFault locationFailure Analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 738: Symposium G – Spatially Resolved Characterization of Local Phenomena in Materials and Nanostructures , 2002 , G7.20
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Grutter, P., Mamin, H.J., and Rugar, D., in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy II, edited by Weisendanger, R. and Guntherodt, H. -J. (Springer, Berlin, 1992), pp.151–207.Google Scholar
[2] Sarid, D., in Scanner Force Microscopy, edited by Lapp, M. and Stark, H. (Oxford University Press, New York, 1991).Google Scholar
[3] Binnig, G., Quate, C.F., and Gerber, C., Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 930 (1986).Google Scholar
[4] Meyer, G. and Amer, N.M., Appl. Phys. Lett. 53, 2400 (1988).Google Scholar
[5] Martin, Y. and Wickramasinghe, H.K., Appl. Phys. Lett. 50, 1455 (1987).Google Scholar
[6] Grutter, P., Wadas, A., Meyer, E., Heinzelmann, H., Hidber, H.-R., and Guntherodt, H.-J., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 8, 406 (1990).Google Scholar
[7] Mamin, H.J., Rugar, D., Stern, J.E., Fontant, R.E. Jr, and Kasiraj, P., Appl. Phys. Lett. 55, 318 (1989);Google Scholar
Luo, Y. and Zhu, J.-G., IEEE trans. Magn. 30, 4080 (1994).Google Scholar
[8] Rugar, D., Mamin, H.J., Guethner, P., Lambert, S.E., Stern, J.E., McFadyen, I., and Yogi, T., J. Appl. Phys. 68, 1169 (1990);Google Scholar
Ohkubo, T., Maeda, Y., and Koshimoto, Y., IEICE Trans. Electron. E78–C, 1523(1995).Google Scholar
[9] Kong, L. and Chou, S.Y., Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 2043 (1997); J. Appl. Phys. 81, 5026 (1997);Google Scholar
Lohau, J., Kirsch, S., Carl, A., Dumpich, G., and Wassermann, E.F., J. Appl. Phys. 86, 3410 (1999).Google Scholar
[10] Hug, H.J. et al., J. Appl. Phys. 83, 5609 (1998).Google Scholar
[11] Tomlinson, S.L. and Farley, A.N., J. Appl. Phys. 81, 5029 (1997).Google Scholar
[12] Campbell, A.N., Cole, E.I., Dodd, B.A., and Anderson, R.E., IEEE International Reliability Phyics Symposium, 31st Annual Proceedings, International, pp. 168–177, (1993).Google Scholar
[13] Liu, Congxiao, Lin, Kingston, Holmes, Rich, Mankey, Gary J., Fujiwara, Hideo, Jiang, Huaming, and Cho, Hae Seok, J. Appl. Phys. 91, 8849 (2002).Google Scholar