Common Methods and Applications of Chip Failure Detection

Date：2024-03-15 13:57:31Views：7

In the semiconductor industry, chip failure analysis is a crucial task that involves various precision technologies and methods to identify the causes of failures in integrated circuit (IC) devices, ensure product quality, and optimize production processes. The following will provide a detailed introduction to several commonly used methods for chip failure detection and their specific applications:

1. Optical Microscopy (OM)

Microscopic analysis is a fundamental step in failure analysis. By using high-resolution optical microscopes such as Zeiss and other branded equipment to inspect the surface of chips, the appearance characteristics, packaging defects, cracks, burn marks, and possible contaminants inside the packaging can be observed.

2. X-ray Radiography

X-Ray technology is one of the non-destructive testing methods that can penetrate packaging materials to reveal internal structures, such as solder joint integrity, packaging layer peeling, bursting, voids, or internal short circuits. This is particularly important for complex packaging forms of chips such as BGA and QFN, which can help engineers discover hidden soldering issues or other structural abnormalities.

3. Ultrasonic Scanning Microscopy (C-SAM)

C-SAM is a method that uses high-frequency ultrasound to detect the internal structure of materials, suitable for detecting problems such as delamination, voids, bubbles, and insufficient filling inside packaging bodies. It is particularly suitable for evaluating defects under wafer level packaging (WLP), cladding packaging (FC), and plastic packaging materials.

4. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM); Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

SEM can provide extremely detailed microscopic morphology information on the surface of chips, and combine it with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to determine element distribution, which helps identify surface defects, metallized layer defects, and oxide layer damage. TEM can perform transmission imaging on thin film samples to deeply analyze the internal structure and crystal defects of the material.

5. Electrical Testing

This includes various methods such as functional testing, parameter testing, and aging testing. Functional testing to verify whether the chip performs logical operations according to design requirements; Parameter testing measures electrical characteristics such as current, voltage, frequency, etc; Aging testing simulates long-term operating environments, observing the changes in chip performance over time, and identifying potential reliability issues.

6. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

By collecting data on failed chips, determine the failure mode, and then apply different methods to explore the failure mechanism. This includes but is not limited to DC voltage testing, dynamic signal testing, thermal stability testing, and reliability experiments.

7. Decaapsulation

Profile analysis is a destructive detection method that removes chip packaging through chemical or mechanical means, exposing the internal structure for deeper analysis. For example, using SEM or TEM to observe defects, corrosion, intermetallic compound growth, and poor contact on silicon wafers.

8. Non Destructive Testing (NDT)

This type of technology also includes infrared thermography for detecting heat dissipation issues caused by uneven thermal distribution, and photoluminescence for detecting lattice defects in semiconductor materials.

In summary, chip failure analysis is a comprehensive process that covers multiple levels of detection methods and technologies. Various methods from non-destructive to destructive work together to serve the localization of failure causes and the proposal of solutions, providing strong guarantees for improving the yield and reliability of chip products.