DIAMOND DELAYERING FOR ELECTRICAL PROBING

摘要

Milling using a scanning probe microscope with a diamond tip removes a layer of material and produces a surface that is sufficiently smooth that it can be probed using a nanoprober to provide site-specific sample preparation and delayering. Diamond milling provides in situ, localized, precision delayering inside of a nanoprobing tool, thereby decreasing the turnaround time for integrated circuit analysis. Furthermore, unlike focused ion beam delayering, the diamond tip should not alter the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit.

主权项

1. A method for delayering a region of a semiconductor device on a substrate, the region having at first set of opposing edges and a second set of opposing edges, the method comprising:
repeatedly scanning a single crystal diamond probe tip of a scanning probe microscope back and forth along different paths between a first set of opposing edges while pressing the probe tip into the substrate to mill an area of the semiconductor circuit to remove a layer of material from the region and expose a buried circuit layer; electrically contacting the exposed circuit layer with an electrical probe; and measuring a signal from the circuit.