Conductive atomic force microscopy application on leaky contact analysis and characterization

Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) is a popular technique for the electrical characterization of dielectric film and gate-oxide integrity. In this paper, we describe the application of C-AFM to fault identification at the contact level. We show that current mapping using C-AFM can easily isolate faulty contacts. In addition, C-AFM can also provide I/V characterization for root cause analysis of failures.