Mechanical Insertion and Reliability Testing of Thermal Interface Materials for Semiconductor Test and Burn-in Applications

Very challenging requirements exist for thermal interface materials (TIMs) for demanding applications I semiconductor testing. Reliability requirements and multiple contact cycling requirements are substantially different and do not exist in traditional applications for TIMs. Developing new material types to meet these very exacting and unusual requirements has been a long-term goal and requires development of an unusual series of test procedures to demonstrate whether the desired reliability goals have been met. Use of a servo-driven, commercial test stand that has unique features for operation and control is described as the basis for a reliability and performance test program developed for these new materials in three phases, with new data for a fourth test phase added, and comparative values for material performance.

Contrast Enhancement for Topographic Imaging in Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy

The influence of the axial pinhole position in a confocal microscope in terms of the contrast of the image is analyzed. The pinhole displacement method is introduced which allows to increase the contrast for topographic imaging. To demonstrate this approach, the simulated data of a confocal setup as well as experimental data is shown. The simulated data is verified experimentally by a custom stage scanning reflective microscopy setup using a semiconductor test target with low contrast structures of sizes between 200 nm and 500 nm. With the introduced technique, we are able to achieve a contrast enhancement of up to 80% without loosing diffraction limited resolution. We do not add additional components to the setup, thus our concept is applicable for all types of confocal microscopes. Furthermore, we show the application of the contrast enhancement in imaging integrated circuits.