Microelectronics Devices Laboratory
The Microelectronics Devices Laboratory, directed by Materials Science and Engineering faculty member A. Christou, specializes in failures analysis and related methodology for integrated circuits and packages. Integrated circuit failure analysis is a constant challenge due to continual changes in device design, manufacturing process, circuit complexity and complex package architecture. To meet this challenge, a working knowledge of the fundamental techniques is required along with the need to develop new techniques to meet the specific needs as they arise. The Microelectronics Devices Laboratory, in association with the Center for Microscopy and Microanalysis, has the capability to meet these challenges and successfully perform the failure analysis of the integrated circuit (IC) packages with the state-of-the-art analytical techniques. Both destructive and nondestructive failure analysis of IC packages can be performed.
The
various analytical techniques that are available for failure analysis
are C-mode Scanning Acoustic
Microscope (C-SAM) for nondestructive failure analysis of
IC packages to identify critical defects in three dimensions within
the package; Scanning
Infrared Microscope (SIR) for non-contact surface temperature
measurements of powered ICs and thermal impedance measurements
of packages; fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microprobe for
micro size analysis of compounds that absorb infrared light; atomic
force (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM) for imaging
of nanoscale surface features in contact and non-contact modes; Environmental
Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) for examination of unprepared
specimens in their natural state without surface charging, the
environmental conditions of ESEM sample chamber can also be varied;
and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) is the basic elemental
analysis tool that provides the elemental information at the failure
site.
Companies interested in failure analysis of IC packages can discuss their interests with Dr. Aris Christou.
Additional Resources
