System and method for photoemission-based defect detection
First Claim
1. A method for detecting defective transistors in integrated circuit (IC) using photon emission, comprising:
- obtaining an infrared emission microscopy image from an area of the IC;
determining intensity values to provide determined intensity of emission from each transistor present in the area of the IC;
obtaining reference intensity corresponding to each transistor;
comparing each determined intensity to corresponding reference intensity.
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Abstract
An IREM image of an IC is obtained. The emission intensity at each emission site is measured/calculated and is compared to reference intensity. The calculated intensity may be plotted against reference intensities. In general, the majority of the plotted intensities would lie in a given range within a straight line. However, for devices that exhibit an abnormal emission, the plot would result in an easily observable deviation from the line. The calculated intensity is used to make a determination of logical “1” or “0” for each device, which is automatically stored together with the corresponding test vector. The calculated logical states are then tabulated and compared against tabulation of reference logical states.
13 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for detecting defective transistors in integrated circuit (IC) using photon emission, comprising:
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obtaining an infrared emission microscopy image from an area of the IC; determining intensity values to provide determined intensity of emission from each transistor present in the area of the IC; obtaining reference intensity corresponding to each transistor; comparing each determined intensity to corresponding reference intensity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for identifying malfunctioning and faulty transistors using IR photon emission collected from a device under test (DUT), comprising:
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a first input receiving image signal correlating to the IR photon emission collected from a selected area of the DUT; a processor receiving the image signal and determining emission intensity for each transistor within the selected area; a storage having reference intensities stored therein; a comparator comparing each of the determined emission intensities to a corresponding reference intensity; an output circuit outputting the comparison results. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An optical tester for testing a semiconductor device under test (DUT), comprising:
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a collection optics for collecting infrared photon emission emitted from transistors within a selected area of the DUT; a sensor for sensing the photon emission from the collection optics and generating an emission signal; a processor receiving the emission signal and determining emission intensity for each transistor within the selected area; a logic state module determining a logic state for each transistor; a storage storing the logic state of each transistor together with a corresponding test vector. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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Specification