The Enhancement of Abnormal Photon Emission Identification for Advanced Processes using a Backside Cooling PEM System

摘要

As manufacturing technology allows semiconductor feature size to shrink, the operating current maximum allowable device leakage is reduced. Because of this, it is more difficult to differentiate abnormal photon emission spots from normal emission spots on more advanced devices, especially 0.13um and smaller process technologies. The sensitivity of a photon emission microscope (PEM) is not sufficient to differentiate the abnormal photon emissions from normal device leakage emissions. In addition, high chip temperature makes device leakage emissions more prominent. This paper will present the principle of weak photon emission inspection enhancement and the development of a backside cooling system based on the present PEM. It is an efficient and economical way to localize failures based on the present PEM. The enhanced PEM tool stabilizes the chip current and operating temperature to lessen the emissions due to normal device leakage using a backside cooling system.