Nanoscale fault isolation technique by conducting atomic force microscopy

We have developed a nanoscale fault isolation technique based on conducting atomic force microscopy (AFM). Using this technique, we located the failure points of junction leakage and gate oxide leakage with high accuracy. Furthermore, we obtained the I-V curves by direct probing of 0.2 /spl mu/m contact plugs and verified the junction leakage failure model. This technique is useful for nanoscale fault isolation. It has the additional advantage of being available for samples without interconnects or electrodes, so that it can be applied to physical analysis of the samples after removal of metal layers or in-line inspection during the fabrication process.