LA ICP-MS in microelectronics failure analysis

To keep up with the trend of integrating more functionality within lighter and smaller consumer electronics devices, the dimensions of components keep shrinking. Technologies such as high density interconnection, 3-D interconnection, system in package (SIP), and flexible circuit are becoming more commonly used. The smaller dimensions of the conductors and insulators (spacing) used in these technologies make them more sensitive to chemical contamination. Trace amounts of chemical contamination introduced during the manufacturing process or in the field can cause device failures. The failure mechanisms include inversion-induced leakage current, corrosion, and electro-chemical migration, to name a few. The complexity of materials used in a highly integrated system also poses new challenges for fault isolation and chemical characterization in failure analysis. This paper calls attention to the selection of appropriate analytical techniques in terms of spatial resolution and sensitivity, sample preparation complexity, throughput, and detection limitations. We present two failure analysis cases in which LA-ICP MS, in conjunction with other analytical techniques, was successfully used to identify the source of chemical contamination and the root cause.