November_EDFA_Digital

ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 20 NO. 4 48 Dave Burgess, Accelerated Analysis davidburgess@AcceleratedAnalysis.com

MASTER FA TECHNIQUES

CURVE TRACING IN FA Failure analysis tools include sophisticated logic analysis testers and specialized material analysis tools. Analysts are required to adapt production oriented tools to the unique demands of failure analysis. This column is available to share such techniques developed by the FA community. Contact me at the above email address or send a note to Joanne Miller at joanne.miller@asminternational.org if you are aware of a trick most of us may be overlooking. Hopefully, this column will introduce you to a few tricks to add to your FA toolbox. A note on curve tracing may be a good example. These useful machines have been pushed out of many labs. Yet, the antiquated curve tracer can play a valuable role in understanding results.

APPLICATION TO FAILURE ANALYSIS Similarly, defects are uniquely identified by their curve tracer displays. Clear examples are provided in papers by Dave Wilson (page 76-85) and Doug McCormac (page 86-88) in the 2004 Microelectronics Failure Analysis Desk Reference. FA techniques based on heat or photos associated with defects are less effective at low voltage. Curve tracer characteristics of leakage current show distinct breaks at voltages where new current paths kick in. Awareness of these characteristics can provide reassurance that higher voltage may be safely applied to make photon or liquid crystal techniques work.

ANALOG CURVE TRACERS Analog instruments such as the Tektronix 576 shown here are no longer produced. Nevertheless,

curve tracer I/V dis- plays tell a story that digital readouts do not. Curve tracer dis- plays literally define the operation of di- odes and transistors. For example, the dis- play shown in the fig- ure can be positively identified as a bipolar transistor.

Tektronix 576, analog curve tracer.

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

IEDM 2018 The 64th International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) will be held December 1-5 at the Hilton San FranciscoUnion Square. IEDM is a leading forum for reporting breakthroughs in the technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling of semiconductors and other electronic devices.

Topics of interest include circuit and device interactions; characterization, reliability, and yield; compound semicon- ductor and high speed devices; memory technology; modeling and simulation; nano device technology; optoelectronics, displays, and imagers; power devices, process and manufacturing technology, and sensors, MEMS, and BioMEMS. IEDM is sponsored by the IEEE Electron Devices Society. For more information, visit ieee-iedm.org.

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