Studies and Applications of EDS, AES and TOF-SIMS Analytical Techniques in Failure Analysis of Fluoride and ChlorineContamination

Abstract

With the rapid development of semiconductor IC design, wafer fabrication and advanced packaging technologies, failure analysis plays a very important role. Past experience tells us that in failure analysis one must ensure the correctness of the analysis results, because wrong data are even worse than no data. As the wrong data, sometimes, may make misleading of the root cause identification. Therefore, in this paper we strongly suggest that we should follow a principle in failure analysis, that is: Yes, means yes; No, don’t say no. When analyzing an IC sample there is no detection of a certain contaminating element on the surface of the sample, it does not mean that the contaminating element does not exist! We should carefully make some considerations to review analysis methods used, parameters selected, analysis location, sample penetration and sensitivity etc. To ensure the correctness of the analysis results, in this paper, we will discuss in detail through several real failure analysis application cases, and demonstrate how to use EDS,AES and TOF-SIMSFA techniques correctly.