Application of Laser Deprocessing Technique in Physical Failure Analysis on Memory Bit-counting

Abstract

With continuous technology scaling of semiconductor devices, conventional physical failure analysis (PFA) techniques becomes more and more challenging with the increased number of transistors and layer stacks. This paper presents a new memory bit-counting method in PFA by employing laser deprocessing technique (LDT). This LDT assisted new method is more cost-effective and efficient in the PFA on memory bit-counting in terms of shortening the total FA cycle time and lowering the requirements for the experimental equipment, which leads to the increase of PFA throughput in memory devices especially for high technology nodes.