EDFAS Online Community

The EDFAS Education Subcommittee strives for the development and delivery of educational products to the EDFAS membership. Keeping with its strategic focus on reaching a broader audience, including facilitating Q&A and educational exchanges on the ASM Connect platform, the Subcommittee presents short format presentations on selected FA topics. These presentations are available on ASM Connect and highlighted in EDFA Magazine.

We present the tutorial:

In-situ Correlative AFM-SEM Characterization for Failure Analysis  

The semiconductor industry is continuously working on improving the performance of modern electronics and new components development. Key physical parameters like dopant concentration levels, carrier types, and crystalline defect densities are fundamental factors that influence the electrical performance of semiconductor devices. Novel methodologies, instrumentation, and workflows are being developed to improve device performance. The key requirement is the ability to investigate samples with nanoscale features to characterize device reliability or failure root cause. One example of a progressive approach for characterizing complex physical and electrical properties of semiconductor materials is correlative in-situ microscopy. A combination of different imaging systems provides a comprehensive understanding of the sample properties without the need to move the sample between multiple instruments. 

In the tutorial, we demonstrate how using the AFM module LiteScope integrated inside the FIB/SEM makes it possible to analyze dopant concentration on cross-sections of high-power MOSFET transistors. You will learn about the measurement workflow from sample preparation AFM navigation to the region of interest to the site-specific measurement of the local resistivity (dopant concentration). Additionally, AFM-in-SEM can be used for a broad range of analyses, such as measuring high-resolution topography and various electrical properties using techniques such as Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (C-AFM), Scanning Spreading Resistance Microscopy (SSRM) and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM). C-AFM enables electrical conductivity measurement with nanoscale resolution, while SSRM can provide valuable information on dopant concentration profiles in semiconductors. KPFM is a non-destructive technique that measures surface potential, giving insight into electronic properties.