Pairing Laser Ablation and Xe Plasma FIB-SEM: An approach for precise endpointing in large-scale Physical Failure Analysis in the Semiconductor Industry

In this work we present a large-volume workflow for fast failure
analysis of microelectronic devices that combines a stand-alone
ps-laser ablation tool with a SEM/Xe Plasma FIB system. In
this synergy, the ps-laser is used to quickly remove large
volumes of bulk material while the SEM/Xe Plasma FIB is used
for precise end-pointing to the feature of interest and fine
surface polishing after laser. The concept of having a standalone laser tool obeys the logic of maximizing productivity as both systems can work simultaneously and continuously. As
application examples we first present a full workflow to prepare
an artefact-free, delamination-free cross-section in an
AMOLED mobile display. We also present applications
examples that require cm-sized long cuts to cut through whole
microelectronic devices, or removal of cubic-mm of material to
prepare mm-sized cross-sections in packages. We discuss a way
how to implement correlation data across the laser and FIBSEM platforms through SYNOPSYS Avalon SW allowing precise navigation to the area of interest using layout circuit
overlays. We also show an example of image bitmap overlay to
navigate across platforms and end-pointing.