Scanning Microwave Microscopy

Introduction
Failure analysis is a vital process in
the development of a new product
and/or improvement of existing
products in the semiconductor
industry. Successful failure analysis
can identify the root cause of a failed
device and guide through corrective
actions. Semiconductor failure
analysis often involves a number of
different techniques, such as curve
tracing, scanning electron microscopy,
transmission electron microscopy,
microthermography, focused ion beam
analysis, etc. As a relatively new
tool, atomic force microscopy (AFM)
based techniques, such as scanning
capacitance microscopy, conductive
AFM, and scanning spreading resistance
microscopy, have been applied to
analysis of various failed devices [1].
In this article, the recently developed
scanning microwave microscopy
(SMM) [2-5] is demonstrated, for
the fi rst time, its capability of doing
semiconductor failure analysis.