Failure analysis on capacitor failures using simple circuit edit passive voltage contrast method

Abstract

Capacitor is one of the most basic passive components on any integrated circuit (IC) chip, such as memory, mixed-signal, or radiofrequency (RF) devices. They can be found in either the front-end or the back-end metallization of a chip. Failure analysis (FA) on such capacitors is increasingly challenging with rising complexities in semiconductor manufacturing demands. In our previous paper, a simple circuit edit passive voltage contrast (CE-PVC) technique was introduced and applied in failure analysis. This method uses a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a platinum deposition module that is commonly found in most FA labs SEM. CE-PVC was used to alter passive voltage contrasts (PVC) through small but reversible circuit editing. In this paper, this technique is further expanded to resolve capacitor failures in both MIM capacitors and front-end polysilicon plate capacitors. This paper successfully demonstrated and resolved three cases of capacitor related failure in both MIM and polysilicon capacitors using CE-PVC technique.