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Article: Backside Analysis Identifies Flaws.(finding integrated circuit flaws)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- R & D
- Article date:
- February 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Advantage Business Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Research is under way to increase the sensitivity of LIVA. An allied set of techniques, called TIVA, is also being developed.
Finding and localizing silicon-related defects from the frontside of an integrated circuit (IC) is getting tougher with each new device generation. The problem with fault-testing ICs on a wafer relates to chip designs that stack metal lines on top of one another. "It's like looking down on the highway system in Miami where they have five levels of bridges, one on top of the other. You can't see the ground," says Ed Cole Jr., a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M.
The ...