Pascal Limbecker

Globalfoundries’ 22nm FDSOI (22FDX®) technology offers full SoC integration including digital, analog and RF. It combines high performance and ultra-low power. With body-biasing it is possible to adjust the device performance to lower power at same frequency or increase performance at same power. Despite all the great features, it brings also some challenges for physical failure analysis, especially on device level. Due to the small transistor size, failure analysis by cross sectioning with SEM/FIB slice and view is difficult to find a defect in the SEM image. Conventional methods to detect faulty devices in a larger area (e.g. leaky gate, etc.) with passive voltage contrast is not possible, because a FDSOI transistor is isolated from the bulk Silicon by a buried oxide layer. Therefore, Nanoprobing plays an important role for fault isolation and electrical device characterization. Unfortunately, the Electron Beam of an SEM based Nanoprobing system leads to a degradation of the transistors by charging. In my talk I will provide insights on sample preparation, Nanoprobing parameters, future requirements and alternatives like an AFM based probing system.

Pascal Limbecker received his diploma in electrical engineering at the University of Applied Science in Zwickau. He started his carrier 2005 in the materials analysis lab at AMD Saxony in Dresden . Since 20 years he works as a specialist for physical failure analysis. His field of expertise is defect localization using OBIRCH, LockIn Thermography, Photon emission and Nanoprobing. He has also many years of experience in circuit edit / chip modification using dual beam FIB tools. Currently he is the technical lead engineer in the PFA Lab of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden. He is also responsible for new developments of advanced PFA techniques and customer communication.