Utilization of ELITE System for Precise Fault Localization of Metal Defect Functional Failure

With the subtle nature of some of today's complex integrated circuit (IC) failures, advanced isolation techniques are critical in determining the best method to determine the root cause of failure. A tedious FA process consisting of Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM), comprehensive circuit analysis, in-circuit voltage mapping using microprobe, and node-to-node fault isolation (typically OBIRCH - Optical Beam Induced Resistance Change) should be employed to guarantee that the correct faulty location is identified when units are functional failures. The advent of lock-in thermography (LIT) has introduced an array of advancement and advantages in comparison to other thermal and non-thermal fault isolation techniques; LIT has dynamic characteristics of measurement, imaging, and sensitivity. This paper explores the capability of Enhanced Lock-In Thermal Emission (ELITE) system in identifying and pinpointing the device level metal-related issues of a complex chip architecture functional failure. The result is very encouraging with ELITE being able to precisely determine the faulty location while PEM and OBIRCH analysis failed to do so.