Failure localization methods for system-on-chip (SoC) using photon emission microscopy

Abstract

System-on-Chip (SoC) is a major revolution in IC design where the whole functionality of a system is placed on a single chip. Its advantages include high performance, shorter design cycle time and space efficiency. But due to the circuit complexity, the high pin counts and ever increasing operating frequencies, System-on-Chip (SoC) devices drive the most challenging requirements for failure localization and mechanism analysis. PEM (Photon Emission Microscopy) analysis is important for failure analysis as they can help to locate the failed device directly or point out the analysis direction. This paper presents the failure localization method for System-on-Chip (SoC) using Photon Emission Microscope (PEM) and gives several successful failure analysis cases using PEM locating the failure site and FIB (Focused Ion Beam) and SEM (Scanning electronic Microscope) analyzing the failure mechanism.