O. Breitenstein et al., Microscopic lock-in thermography investigation of leakage sites in integrated circuits, REV SCI INS, 71(11), 2000, pp. 4155-4160
The detection limit of infrared thermographic investigations can be improve
d down to 10 muK by using a highly sensitive high-speed infrared camera in
an on-line averaging lock-in thermography system. Together with a microscop
e objective, this allows lock-in thermography to be used as a simple and se
nsitive technique to localize the sites of leakage currents and other heat
sources in electronic components. The practical realization of a novel lock
-in thermography system is described and both test measurements and practic
al applications are introduced. The detection limit for surface-near local
heat sources in silicon is a few microwatts with a spatial resolution down
to 5 mum. Leakage sites in several microelectronic structures are imaged an
d assigned to the layout of the integrated circuit by comparing direct imag
es with lock-in ones. The direct comparison of an averaged and background-s
ubtracted stationary thermogram with a lock-in one, both measured under sim
ilar conditions at the same sample, clearly demonstrates the gain in inform
ation obtained by using lock-in thermography. (C) 2000 American Institute o
f Physics. [S0034-6748(00)05210-2].