Backside Failure Analysis of GaAs ICs after ESD tests

摘要

Chemical back-etch of GaAs integrated circuits has proven effective in localizing small ESD-induced damages, otherwise nearly undetectable under conventional top-view inspection. For the particular case of GaAs ICs damaged under HBM test, the backside inspection not only revealed some Particular failure sites, but also enabled to carry out some significant circuit analysis with the development of an Equivalent electrical circuit, suitable to explain the occurrence of some burned spots at unexpected locations.