Introduction As the complexity of integrated circuits (IC) in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices evolves to smaller feature sizes and higher densities, the task of performing successful failure analysis (FA) is getting increasingly difficult and challenging. Traditional physical FA techniques involving microscopic imaging of plan view or cross sectional structures using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and/or transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are often not capable of identifying non-visible defects (NVD) such as junction leakage, crystal lattice defects and gate oxide leakage which have gradually become dominant root causes for IC failure.
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