Single contact optical beam induced currents

Semiconductor industry is continuously experiencing shrinking device features and a tremendous increase in the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC). The application of the optical beam induced currents (OBIC) technique in ICs is more difficult and mainly limited to a few transistors near the input–output pins of an IC. The single contact optical beam induced currents (SCOBIC) is a new device and failure analysis technique, that makes it possible to perform the similar OBIC technique on many transistor including internal junction on an IC. This is done by connecting the substrate or power pins of an IC circuit to the current amplifier. In contrast, in the OBIC technique, only the junction directly connected to the current amplifier is imaged. The implementation of the SCOBIC approach is discussed and experimental results which demonstrates the SCOBIC approach is presented. Application of the SCOBIC technique from the backside of an IC, which further enhances the technique, is also discussed.