SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPES.

Abstract

Electron-beam probers, incorporating off-the-shelf scanning electron microscope (SEM) technology, have been utilized in semiconductor laboratories by specialists for the last decade. These systems use the phenomenon of voltage contrast to generate images of operating circuits. As the electron-beam probing offers perhaps the only means for probing internal nodes on VLSI devices, an integrated diagnostic system (IDS5000) is introduced that takes the analogy of waveform acquisition with a sampling oscilloscope to its logical conclusion. Acquiring waveforms involves the use of an oscilloscope window that models the functionality of a conventional sampling oscilloscope. The system automatically selects the optimal acquisition parameters, freeing the user to concentrate on the diagnosis task.