Scanning electron microscopy and wavelength dispersive spectroscopy in situ observations of the formation and growth of Ag dendrites in AgBr layers initiated and stimulated by electron beam exposure
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) builds up an image by sampling contiguous sub-volumes near the surface of the specimen. A fine electron beam selectively excites each sub-volume and then the intensity of some resulting signal is measured. The spatial resolution of images made using such a process is limited by at least three factors. Two of these determine the size of the interaction volume: the size of the electron probe and the extent to which detectable signal is excited from locations remote from the beam impact point. A third limitation emerges from the fact that the probing beam is composed of a finite number of discrete particles and therefore that the accuracy with which any detectable signal can be measured is limited by Poisson statistics applied to this number (or to the number of events actually detected if this is smaller).
Abstract
Advanced package technology often includes multi-chips in one package to accommodate the technology demand on size & functionality. Die tilting leads to poor device performance for all kinds of multi-chip packages such as chip by chip (CbC), chip on chip (CoC), and the package with both CbC and CoC. Traditional die tilting measured by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy has capability issue due to wave or electron beam blocking at area of interest by electronic components nearby. In this paper, the feasibility of using profilemeter to investigate die tilting in single and multi-chips is demonstrated. Our results validate that the profilemeter is the most profound metrology for die tilting analysis especially on multi-chip packages, and can achieve an accuracy of <2μm comparable to SEM.
Abstract
This work presents advanced resistance mapping techniques based on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with nanoprobing systems and the related embedded electronics. Focus is placed on recent advances to reduce noise and increase speed, such as integration of dedicated in situ electronics into the nanoprobing platform, as well as an important transition from current-sensitive to voltagesensitive amplification. We show that it is now possible to record resistance maps with a resistance sensitivity in the 10W range, even when the total resistance of the mapped structures is in the range of 100W. A reference structure is used to illustrate the improved performance, and a lowresistance failure case is presented as an example of analysis made possible by these developments.
In Situ Observations Using Ultrahigh Vacuum Scanning Electron Microscopy