Novel and Simple Cross-sectional FIB Circuit Edit Techniques for Circuit Isolation

Abstract

Focused Ion Beam Circuit Edit (FIB-CE) is one of the most commonly used silicon (Si) debug tools that are often used in the semiconductor industry, especially for the new design prototype chip. With the expanding growth of semiconductor applications in different areas, such as next-generation smartphones, automotive, medical equipment, artificial intelligence, RF application, and high power devices, the new prototype chip demand has also increased. Hence, FIB-CE plays an important role in Si debugging for new designs or prototype chips. Among FIB-CE jobs in failure analysis (FA), circuit isolation is one of the common requests. This paper introduces a novel and simple cross-sectional FIB circuit edit (XFIB-CE) techniques for circuit isolation. This technique utilized a normal cross-sectional FIB as a method to cut and isolate the unwanted circuitry. Hence, it is an easier, simpler and more efficient alternative technique for FIB-CE circuit isolation as compared with the top-down FIB-CE milling technique.