Single contact optical beam induced currents

Semiconductor industry is continuously experiencing shrinking device featur es and a tremendous increase in the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC). The application of the optical beam induced currents (OBIC) t echnique in ICs is more difficult and mainly limited to a few transistors n ear the input-output pins of an IC. The single contact optical beam induced currents (SCOBIC) is a new device and failure analysis technique, that mak es it possible to perform the similar OBIC technique on many transistor inc luding internal junction on an IC. This is done by connecting the substrate or power pins of an IC circuit to the current amplifier. In contrast, in t he OBIC technique, only the junction directly connected to the current ampl ifier is imaged. The implementation of the SCOBIC approach is discussed and experimental results which demonstrates the SCOBIC approach is presented. Application of the SCOBIC technique from the backside of an IC, which furth er enhances the technique, is also discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd . All rights reserved.