Soft Defect Analysis on Advanced Logic Integrated Circuit by Dynamic Laser Stimulation

As device feature becomes smaller, the different types of failure mechanism increases. Electrical Failure Analysis (EFA) becomes more challenging and complex. Especially functional test failures where conventional isolation techniques such as photon emission microscopy (PEM) and optical beam induced resistance change (OBIRCH) are not effective to pinpoint the exact failure position, advanced dynamic EFA methodologies are required. Soft failures on advanced logic are more pervasive in recent years [1]. Typically, such failures respond to temperature, power supply voltage or frequency and have been one of the most difficult types of defects to isolate. Dynamic Laser Stimulation (DLS)[2] is widely used for soft defect analysis and it is an effective and quick method to localize soft defects in integrated circuits (IC). In this paper, two FA cases are presented to emphasize the effectiveness of DLS in localizing soft defects on 10nm logic device.