FUTURE TRENDS IN ELECTRON BEAM TESTING.

Current trends in electron beam testing (EBT) are determined by those prevailing in microelectronics. This paper describes those aspects of microelectronics which have a particularly significant effect on EBT. Future trends in EBT are discussed against this background and on the basis of a description of state-of-the-art EBT systems. In its currently available, basic form, EBT can deal with the next two circuit generations, although interesting scopes still exist for improving the time resolution. A critical view must be taken of integration with computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided testing (CAT) where standardized interfaces are lacking.