Chemistry: electrical and wave energy – Processes and products – Coating – forming or etching by sputtering
Patent
1996-12-20
1999-09-07
Nguyen, Nam
Chemistry: electrical and wave energy
Processes and products
Coating, forming or etching by sputtering
20419233, 20429832, 20429836, 216 94, 438474, C23C 1446, C23C 1434
Patent
active
059482176
ABSTRACT:
A method and an apparatus for endpoint determination when milling an integrated circuit disposed in a substrate. In one embodiment, the substrate is charged to a first polarity while the well regions and active diffusion regions of the integrated circuit are charged to another polarity thus resulting in an electrical bias at the P-N junctions in the substrate. By powering up the integrated circuit in this fashion during milling, endpoint detection can be accurately determined by using a voltage contrast mechanism such as the imaging detector of a focused ion beam (FIB) milling tool. A diffusion boundary can also be determined in accordance with the teachings of the invention by the use of the stage current monitor of the FIB milling tool. The diffusion boundary is determined in accordance with the teachings of the present invention by a change in contrast as detected by the imaging detector of the FIB milling tool or by a change in the stage current as measured by the stage current monitor of the FIB milling tool. By accurately determining when a diffusion boundary is reached, the present invention reduces the risk of inadvertently destroying diffusion regions when exposing features in an integrated circuit during debug.
REFERENCES:
Basic Photovoltaic Principles and Methods, Solar Energy Research Institute, pp. 14-17, Dec. 1984.
Paul Winer, "IC Failure Analysis, E-Beam Tutorial," International Reliability and Physics Symposium, 1996.
Ann N. Campbell, Fault Localization with the Focused Ion Beam (FIB) System, in Microelectronic Failure Analysis, ASM International, 1996.
Livengood Richard H.
Winer Paul
Intel Corporation
Nguyen Nam
Ver Steeg Steven H.
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