Speeding up large-scale failure analysis of semiconductor devices by laser ablation

As the semiconductor industry demands higher throughput for device failure analysis, there is a need to rapidly speed up the sample preparation workflows. Here we present the incorporation of a standalone laser ablation tool into the standard Xe plasma Focused Ion Beam workflows for failure analysis in three distinct applications: a large solder ball cross-sectioning and polishing, a deep MEMS cross-sectioning and polishing, as well as removing the MEMS silicon cap and accessing underlying structures. In all of these workflows we have shown a significant decrease in required process time while altogether avoiding the disadvantages of corresponding mechanical and chemical methods.