Micro-cleavage method for specimen preparation

Details Micro-cleavage method for specimen preparation Micro-cleavage method for specimen preparation

1999-03-31

2000-10-31

Ryan, Patrick

Electric heating

Metal heating

By arc

21912168, 21912167, 2191216, B23K 2600

Patent

active

061406031

ABSTRACT:
A micro-cleavage method for preparing a semiconductor specimen for examination by an optical or electron microscopic is disclosed. The method can be carried out by hand and thus no expensive equipment such as a polishing machine is necessary. In the method, at least two bird's beak marks are cut in a top surface of a silicon wafer that contains a target, i.e., a defect or a circuit to be examined. The bird's beak marks are formed by a wide scribe line and a narrow scribe line overlapped together. The wide scribe line of the bird's beak mark is used for visual alignment with the edge of a rigid substrate, while the fine scribe line is utilized for initiating a crack when a bending stress is applied on the bird's beak mark. The bird's beak mark can be made by using a laser cutter after a wafer slice which contains the target area is first cleaved by mechanical means such as a diamond knife. A first bird's beak mark is formed at the cleaved edge of the slice and a second bird's beak mark is formed with its fine scribe line oriented toward the target. When a bending stress is applied on the top surface of the silicon slice, stress concentrates on the bird's beak marks and creates a fine crack to propagate along a crystallographic plane in the wafer toward the target thus exposing the target in a fractured surface.

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patent: 4660275 (1987-04-01), Lo
patent: 5254833 (1993-10-01), Okiyama
patent: 5629233 (1997-05-01), Chand et al.
patent: 5829658 (1998-11-01), Colombani

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