Simulation assisted uncovering and understanding of complex failures in 28nm microprocessor devices

With rapid developments in semiconductor manufacturing technologies, new and more complicated challenges emerge in the Failure Analysis space. The real challenge arises when similar electrical data is obtained from transistor nano-probing from completely different defect types. Accurate data interpretation is therefore the key to unraveling and understanding the root causes of failure. This paper emphasizes on the use of simulation as a tool to identify key differences in electrical data to successfully zero in on the root causes of failure, thus enabling wafer fabs to take appropriate corrective measures in mitigating such failures. Successful case studies involving these techniques will also be discussed.