QUALITY AND RELIABILITY IMPACT OF DEFECT DATA-ANALYSIS

In the last decade we have seen a shift towards a broader application of information on IC manufacturing defects. Here an overview will be g iven of the methods used to gather data on the defects with a focus on local defects in the interconnection layers. Next this information is applied to determine a model describing the geometrical aspects of su ch defects. This model is used to come to the definition of hard fault s and soft faults and to derive a relationship between the relative nu mber of occurrence for either fault. Because the electrical impact of some of the soft faults will be closely related to the behavior of sma ll open circuits or gate-oxide shorts, this relationship is an indicat ion for the amount of quality and reliability problems.