E-BEAM STATIC FAULT IMAGING WITH A CAD INTERFACE AND ITS APPLICATION TO MARGINAL FAULT-DIAGNOSIS

A new image-based diagnostic method is proposed for use with an E-beam tester. The method features a static fault imaging technique and a na vigation map for fault tracing. Static Fault imaging with a dc E-beam enables the fast acquisition of images without any additional hardware . Then, guided by the navigation map derived from CAD data, marginal t iming faults can be easily pinpointed. A statistical estimation of the average count of static fault images for various LSI circuits shows t hat the proposed method can diagnose marginal faults by observing less than thirty faulty images and that a faulty area can be localized wit h up to five times fewer observations than with the guided-probe metho d. The proposed method was applied to a 19k-gate CMOS-logic LSI circui t and a marginal timing fault was successfully located.