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The global radio frequency (RF) semiconductor market size is growing dramatically in recent years, especially with the growing demand for mobile devices, communication networks, automotive applications, etc. Failure analysis (FA) on RF devices is normally more complex than digital devices, especially when it involves soft failure. This paper discusses FA on an RF product soft failure issue by the pulsed currentvoltage (IV) nanoprobing technique. The device suffered from high-frequency failure and exhibited abnormal repetitive softstart signature. Previous publications on pulsed IV nanoprobing applications were mostly related to Front End Of Line (FEOL) issues and simulations. In most of these cases, the electrical abnormality could also be observed with normal DC IV measurement. In this paper, the pulsed IV nanoprobing was performed at the Back End Of Line (BEOL) interconnects to isolate the failure that was otherwise not detected with normal DC nanoprobing or the reported pulse IV measurement. The proposed method successfully isolate, simulate the failure, and helping us to identify the process and design rule weakness.

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is an important area for the semiconductor industry because ESD has an impact on production yield and product quality. ESD problems are increasing and have become challenging in the semiconductor industry because of the trends toward higher speed and shrinking in technology node. By continually shrinking the transistor with technology scaling, the process, circuit design, and failure analysis (FA) are getting more challenging. This paper is about FA on a 14 nm Fin-Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) device which has ESD failure after Charged Device Model (CDM) test. In most ESD failure FA, most of the time found Electrical Over Stress (EOS), the important is to understand which process layer or design causing the EOS. At the same time, this paper also discusses the difficulties faced, the FA technique used, the bottleneck of the 14 nm FinFET FA by old technology node FA equipment, and the FA findings. Finally, the ESD failure was identified with Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM)/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. The FA findings of the failure are related to the front end of line (FEOL), the metal gate of FinFET was fused with active, and the material in the metal gate was out-diffused.

Solution precursor plasma spraying (SPPS) as a novel thermal spray method was employed to deposit nano-structured ZnO thin film using different formulations of the precursor solution. This article focuses on the influence of the solution composition on the preferential orientation of crystal growth, on crystal size and surface morphology of the resulting ZnO films. The trend of preferential growth along (002) lattice plane of ZnO film was studied by slow scanning X-ray diffraction using a specific coefficient P (002). It appears that the thermal spray process promotes the buildup of ZnO films preferentially oriented along the c-axis. The shape of single particle tends to change from round shaped beads to hexagonal plates by increasing the volume ratio of ethanol in the solvent. Both cauliflower and honeycomb-like surface morphologies featuring high specific surface area and roughness were obtained through the SPPS process by varying solution composition. These ZnO films are hydrophobic with contact angle as high as 136°, which is seemingly associated with micro reliefs developing high surface specific area. Then the gas sensing performances of ZnO films preferentially oriented along (002) face were tentatively predicted using the “first principle calculation method” and were compared with those of conventional films that are mainly oriented along the (101) face. The (002) face displays better hydrogen adsorption capability than the (101) face with much larger resulting changes in electrical resistance. In conclusion, the c-axis oriented ZnO films obtained through SSPS have favorable performances to be used as sensitive layer in gas sensing applications.

With continuous scaling on CMOS device dimensions, it is becoming increasingly challenging for conventional failure analysis (FA) methods to identify the failure mechanism at the circuit level in an integrated chip. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) based nanoprobing is becoming an increasingly critical tool for identifying non-visual failures via electrical characterization in current electrical FA metrology for fault isolation since 2006 Toh et al. (2007), Shen et al. (2007), Ng et al. (2012) . Currently, most of the nanoprobing fault isolation is nanoprobe in top-down planar direction, such as nanoprobe on via, contact and metal line. This paper focused on fault isolation of sub-micron devices by nanoprobing on a cross-sectional plane. This is a new application area; it is very useful for sample that cannot perform fault isolation with conventional top-down planar nanoprobing, especially on non-volatile memory that with single transistor memory array that arrange in a vertical direction, such as Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM), Phase-Change Random Access Memory (PC-RAM), flash memory and etc.

Implantation is the key process in the modern semiconductor process which forms the basic device cell by different doping ditribution, depth, angle and element type. They are the key factors to affect the transistor performance, but the implantation-related defect is invisible by the normal failure analysis method. Then electrical analysis and verification is necessary to visualize this kind of defect. Electrical theory is important in this kind of failure analysis to indirectly proven the problematic process. The transistor body effect is a well know effect which is utilized in some kind of IC design to change the transistor Vth for certain purpose. But nobody uses this effect for the implantation-related failure analysis since the implant itself is complex and is not ideally uniform as the theory model. In this paper, implantation-related defect was successfully identified by the application of transistor body effect combined with nanoprobing on the localized structure.

SRAM is a major component in semiconductor industry which often requires extensive and exhaustive method of fault isolation, especially for a non-visual defect in a soft failure mode. For these cases, nanoprobing on CA layer is often performed but there are times when it fails to isolate any defect. One reason may be because the failure only occurs at high temperature test environment. This paper will discuss the effectiveness of high temperature nanoprobing for SRAM soft failure fault isolation. 3 different case studies result from 3 similar SRAM devices which failed at high temperature test environment will be analyzed in this paper.

As the applications of micro electronic mechanical system (MEMS) are booming, more and more research and development activities are involved in the MEMS industry. For every new MEMS product with new functions, the manufacturing process will be tailored to cope with the changes. This requires reliability work to ensure the robustness of the new process. Thus, failure analysis plays an important role in the process development and the success rate for MEMS FA will be critical. In this paper, we will discuss a new decapsulation approach using a wedge diamond indenter based tool. It is a pure mechanical method and most of all, the whole process can be visually guided and monitored with the onboard optical vision system. The precision knob based operation is controllable, which makes the success rate very high by every user. We have successfully applied this method to our MEMS FA cases and this paper will detail our experiences.

Although nano-particles have attracted extensive studies in material science and technology for decades, how to measure the particle size efficiently and conveniently still remains to be a problem unsolved. In this paper, Si nano-particles prepared by annealing a very thin amorphous Si layer were inspected by atomic force microscopy (AFM) as well as SEM and TEM e-beam techniques. Results extracted from AFM images are larger than those from e-beam imaging techniques mainly due to AFM probe tip convolution effect. In order to correct the AFM tip/probe induced topography convolutions, strategy and approaches were explored by constructing a suitable tip geometry model and then applied to the different scenarios when particle size is larger or close to the tip radius. The conclusions are consequently applied to the current study and the corrected AFM results are satisfying.

This study explores a new form of Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) method, which uses mesh free displacement functions instead of linear polynomial ones adopted in the original DDA, hence it can effectively describe complex block displacements and deformations. Moreover, the capability of describing a block’s nonlinear mechanical behaviors, i.e., plasticity and fracture, are developed under classical fracture and increment plasticity mechanics theories. With consideration of computation efficiency and convenience, the Sibson natural neighbor interpolation technique for block plasticity analysis and the enriched Moving Least-Squares (MLS) approximation for block fracture analysis are employed, respectively. Numerical results show the applicability of the proposed mesh free DDA method.

Tree-ring data can be used to provide high-resolution records of climate variability in areas like the Tengger Desert where few other records exist. In the present work, three tree-ring-width chronologies in the Luoshan Mountains in north-western China showed synchronous variation. These were averaged to develop a comprehensive chronology that was then used to reconstruct the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) since 1897 AD for the grid point N 38°45′, E 103°45′ in the Tengger Desert. The annual PDSI and tree-ring widths in the Changlingshan Mountains at the southern margin of the Tengger Desert matched well (r = 0.50, p < 0.001), indicating the reliability of the reconstruction. The annual PDSI dry and wet periods were consistent with recorded lake sediments in the northern Mu Us Desert. The dry periods in the Tengger Desert were compatible with the relatively low PDSI in the Ortindag Sand Land in eastern Inner Mongolia. Abrupt climate variability occurred around 1922, 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936, in line with abrupt changes in the Asian monsoon system in the 1930s. Distinct periods of about 2–4 years and 5–7 years were evident in the reconstructed PDSI.

As the semiconductor technology continues to scale, the stability and performance of embedded SRAM are growing concerns during the design and analysis stages. Maintaining an acceptable Static Noise Margin (SNM) in the embedded SRAM while scaling the minimum feature size and supply voltage of the integrated circuit (IC) becomes increasingly challenging. As a result, the manufacturing process window continues to shrink. This increases the difficulty for the failure analysis as many soft failures are induced by the reducing process margin. In this paper, a case study on an advanced technology node embedded SRAM soft fail was analyzed. Nanoprobing was employed at the room temperature to do SNM analysis at Metal 1 on the suspected location. Abnormal SNM window was observed at the room temperature analysis. Further analysis at high temperature on the same bit confirmed the soft failure bit. This correlates to the testing failure mode result. This case study is a good example for others who encounter same kind of the embedded SRAM soft failure.

Using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, crystallization kinetics of the Ge23Se67Sb10 glass upon isochronal annealing has been studied, on the basis of an analytical phase transformation model. Kinetic analysis in terms of some recipes shows that the isochronal crystallization is governed by continuous nucleation with increasing nucleation rate upon transformation, three dimensional interface-controlled growth and impingement due to anisotropic growth. This is compatible with the fit using the analytical phase transformation model, i.e. the effective activation energy Q has been determined as 152.6 kJ/mol and the growth exponent n as 4.3.

The sixth-order coincidence fractional Fourier transform (FRT) with incoherent and partially coherent light is introduced as an extension of the recently introduced fourth-order coincidence FRT. An optical system for implementing sixth-order coincidence FRT is designed. It is found that the visibility of the sixth-order coincidence FRT pattern of an object is always much higher than that of the fourth-order coincidence FRT pattern. The visibility is closely related to the transverse width and the transverse coherence length of the light source and also depends on the fractional order of the optical system.

An optical low-coherence interferometry technique has been used to simultaneously resolve the mode profile and to measure the intermodal dispersion of guided modes of a few-mode fiber. Measurements are performed using short samples of fiber (about 50 cm). There is no need for a complex mode-conversion technique to reach a high interference visibility. Four LP mode groups of the few-mode fiber are resolved. Experimental results and numerical simulations show that the ellipticity of the fiber core leads to a distinct splitting of the degenerate high-order modes in group index. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, it has been demonstrated that degenerate LP11 modes are much more sensitive to core shape variations than the fundamental modes and that intermodal dispersion of high-order degenerate modes can be used for characterizing the anisotropy of an optical waveguide.

ZnO films were deposited on (100) Si substrate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. These films were irradiated at room temperature with 308 MeV Xe-ions to a fluence of 1.0 x 10(12), 1.0 x 10(13) or 1.0 x 10(14) Xe/cm(2). Then the samples were investigated using RBS, XRD, FESEM and PL analyses. The obtained experimental results showed that the deposited ZnO films were highly c-axis orientated and of high purity, 308 MeV Xe-ion irradiations could not change the c-axis oriented. The topography and PL properties of the ZnO films varied with increasing the Xe-ion irradiation fluence. For 1.0 x 10(13) or 1.0 x 10(14) Xe/cm(2) irradiated samples, surface cracks were observed. Furthermore, it was found that the 1.0 x 10(14) Xe/cm(2) irradiated sample exhibiting the strongest PL ability. The modification of structure and PL properties induced by 308 MeV Xe-ion irradiations were briefly discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This study compares two pairs of adjacent lacustrine and eolian sections at sites in the southern and northern Mongolian Plateaus in order to test spatial climate variability during the Holocene. Based on the lithology, proxy data, and 14C dated and the interpolated ages, the following observations can be made. In the northern Mongolian Plateau, a best developed Holocene paleosol dated at 8672 14C yr BP at the Shaamar section and the carbonate-rich laminated layer in the Gun Nuur lake core mark the interval of warmer and dryer climate during the early Holocene. Younger paleosols at the Shaamar section and corresponding organic-rich layers in the Gun Nuur core were formed under distinctly cooler and more humid conditions. The Baahar Nuur lake core in the southern Mongolian Plateau and the Dingxi-type section in the northern part of the Western Chinese Loess Plateau appear to indicate that a prolonged interval of maximum humidity prevailed in this region during the early and mid-Holocene (9000–4000 14C yr BP). By contrast, in the northern Mongolian Plateau the most humid conditions seem to have occurred from 4500 to 2500 (possibly to 1650) 14C yr BP. This discrepancy implies that the concept of the Holocene climatic optimum has limitations and may have to be reconsidered if it is intended to have a large-scale connotation.

CMOS device miniaturization and the rapidly growing demand for mobile or power-aware systems have resulted in an urgent need to lower down power supply voltage (Vdd). However, soft fails at low Vdd in SRAM Array become a major yield limiter due to process variation and VT mismatch. This paper describes an advanced characterization flow on soft fails with the combination of applying fail-specified functional memory patterns, circuit analysis and advanced PFA techniques. The flow was successfully applied in soft fail characterization for sub-28nm SRAM yield improvement.

This paper highlights the use of nanoprobing as a crucial and fast methodology for failure analysis (FA) in sub 20nm with an improved semi-auto nanoprobing system. Nanoprobing has the capability to localize as well as characterize the electrical behavior of the malfunctioning device for a better understanding of the failure mechanism. It provides a valuable guide to choose a proper physical FA technique to identify the root cause of the failure. This established methodology helps to accelerate the FA turnaround time and improve the success rate. Its application to a few of the front end of line and one back end of line issues is highlighted in the paper.

Electrical Test (ET) structures are used to monitor the health and yield of a process line. With the scaling down of semiconductor devices to nanometer ranges, the number of metal lines and vias increase. In order to simulate the electrical performance of devices and to increase the sensitivity for line health check, ET structures are designed to be more complicated with a larger area. Hence, fault isolation and failure analysis become more challenging. In this paper, the combined technique of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Passive Voltage Contrast (PVC), Nanoprobing technique, and Divide and Conquer Method (DCM) are proposed to locate open failure and high resistance failure in an ET via chain.

With the scaling down of semiconductor devices to nanometer range, physical failure analysis (PFA) has become more challenging. In this paper, a different method of performing PFA to identify a physical vertical short of intermetal layer in nanoscale devices is discussed. The proposed chemical etch and backside chemical etch PFA techniques have the advantages of sample preparation evenness and efficiency compared to conventional PFA. This technique also offers a better understanding of the failure mechanism and is easier to execute in identifying the vertical short issue.

As electronic devices shrink further in the nanometer regime, electrical characterization using nanoprobing has become increasingly important. Focused ion beam (FIB) is one useful technique that can be used to create markings for ease of defective site identification during nanoprobing. This paper investigates the impact of FIB exposure on the electrical parameters of the pull-up (PU), pull-down (PD) and pass-gate (PG) transistors of 6-Transistor Static Random Access Memory (6T SRAM) cells.

The poor quality of oocytes may be the main reason for the low efficiency of the current in vitro embryo production. However, efforts are required to understand the mechanisms of oocyte development, which is believed to be largely regulated by apoptosis in vivo. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of apoptosis in bovine immature oocytes with different developmental potentials and to determine whether early apoptosis in bovine oocytes is correlated with their subsequent development. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were selected and classified into four groups according to oocyte cytoplasm and cumulus status. Early and late stages of apoptosis were detected by Annexin-V and TUNEL staining, respectively. Developmental competence was evaluated by nuclear maturation (MII) after in vitro maturation and development rates in different stages following in vitro fertilization. Meanwhile, the transcripts of Bcl-2 and Bax genes were carried out in immature oocytes by real-time RT-PCR. Results indicated that Annexin-V-positive oocytes were detected in various groups at different percentages, and Group III showed the highest positive ratio. No TUNEL-positive oocytes were found in any immature COCs. Group III oocytes demonstrated the highest nuclear maturation, cleavage, blastocyst, and hatching blastocyst rates. Meanwhile, Group III oocytes exhibited the highest Bax (initiating apoptosis) transcriptional level and the lowest Bcl-2 (preventing apoptosis) transcriptional level. Taken together, Annexin-V and quantitative PCR results indicated that early apoptosis was beneficial for developmental competence, while TUNEL staining showed that none of the immature oocytes were undergoing late-stage apoptosis. This is the first time that Bax and Bcl-2 transcripts were characterized in the immature bovine oocyte, and results indicated that the genes are good markers of early apoptosis and embryo development. This research overthrows the traditional view that oocytes undergoing apoptosis have poor developmental competence, and the findings will facilitate oocyte selection and improvement of in vitro embryo production.

The present study aimed to assess location and relative amounts of transforming growth factor alpha (TGFalpha) and its receptor (EGFR) in ovine oocytes and preimplantation embryos by using immunohistochemical technique that was graded on a relative scale of 0-3, with 0 representing absence of staining, and 3 exhibiting prominent staining, and to evaluate the effects of TGFalpha/EGF on in vitro development of preimplantation embryos by adding different concentrations of EGF and TGFalpha to culture medium. The results showed that EGFR was abundant in cell plasma membranes in immature and mature oocytes, cumulus cells of immature cumulus-oocyte complexes (COC), fertilized oocytes and at different stages of embryo development. However, the relative amounts in inner cell mass (ICM) (1+) was less than that in trophectoderm (TE) cells (2+) at the blastocysts stage. The staining pattern for TGFalpha was a similar to EGFR. However, the staining for TGFalpha slightly increased in the fertilized oocytes (1-2+) as compared to immature and mature oocytes (1+). TGFalpha was mainly detected in the cytoplasm close to the membrane in both ICM and trophectoderm (TE) cells. The developmental rate of 8-cell stage embryos cultured with 5 ng/ml TGFalpha was increased as compared to other treatments (P0.05). There was no significant difference in the rate of development of blastocysts cultured with 5 ng/ml TGFalpha, 20 ng/ml EGF, 20 ng/ml EGF+5 ng/ml TGFalpha or the control treatment (P0.05). In addition, there was no significant difference in the number of cells in blastocyst stage as compared with different treatments (P0.05). However, TGFalpha alone enhanced cell survival rated (P0.01) and reduced apoptosis. We concluded that TGFalpha can improve development of ovine preimplantation embryos at the 8-cell and blastocyst stages in vitro.

What is the effect of constant compared to intermittent heating of the shoot and root on growth, nutrient status, and yield of greenhouse tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill)? Seedlings were transplanted early, on 4 Mar. 1994 and 1 Mar. 1995, or late, on 25 Mar. 1994 and 31 Mar. 1995, into troughs of peat-lite mix. The troughs were heated to 21C by buried tubing, either constantly, or for 12 h during the day or the night, or they were not heated. The greenhouses had either 14/14C or 22/6C day/night minimum air temperatures. After 2 weeks, early transplants had the greatest leaf weight with constant root heat and least with no heat. Root weight was greater for 14/14C than 22/6C air heat. With 14/14C air heat, only the no-root heat reduced leaf weight, whereas with 22/6C air heat, root heat ranking was constant > day > night ≈no heat. With late transplants, only the no heat reduced leaf weight. Most nutrient concentrations were less in late than in early transplants. Number of fruit, and number and weight of marketable fruit produced by 1 July from early transplants was affected by root heat; the ranking was constant heat > day > night > no heat. The 22/6C air heat increased marketable yield because of fewer small, irregular and blossom end rot fruit. Root heat had no effect on yield of late transplants.

With the scaling down of semiconductor devices to nanometer range, fault isolation and physical failure analysis (PFA) have become more challenging. In this paper, different types of fault isolation techniques to identify gross short failures in nanoscale devices are discussed. The proposed cut/deprocess and microprobe/bench technique is an economical and simple way of identifying low resistance gross short failures.