A Silicon Debugging Methodology on Customer Prototype for Wafer Foundries

IP protection is of major importance for a semiconductor company and only limited information is made available for device debugging for the product outsourced to a foundry. In order to position ourselves better in the ever competitive semiconductor industry, with the consideration of IP protection, we have to provide the customers with the Si debugging capability and device/chip verification services in foundry. This paper explores the Si debugging methodology and technique in a foundry. Two case studies are presented and discussed. The first case illustrates the isolation of the failure location by InGaAs microscopy, upon which the failure was identified to be caused by a latch-up issue. In the second case, due to confidentiality considerations from the customer, full information could not be provided to the foundry for silicon debugging. The paper illustrates the ability to effectively debug a failure despite being constrained by limited information from the customer.

Videoendoscopic Laryngeal Surgery

This paper introduces videoendoscope-assisted laryngeal surgery with office-based equipment. With this technique, a patient is seated and the nose, pharynx, and larynx are topically anesthetized. A flexible videoendoscope with a light-sensitive charge-coupled device chip built into the tip is transnasally inserted by an assistant. Specially designed fine-tipped forceps and scalpels were developed for removal of laryngeal lesions. Videoendoscopic laryngeal surgery was undertaken in 114 cases of laryngeal lesions such as polyps, granuloma, and cancer. For benign vocal fold lesions, postoperative vocal function was shown to be improved on aerodynamic and perceptual analyses. For laryngeal tumors, biopsy of the lesion was easily undertaken. Videoendoscopic laryngeal surgery presents the following advantages. It is applicable to outpatients not requiring general anesthesia, it enables functional monitoring of the patient's voice and vocal fold during phonation, it allows for delicate manipulations with both hands, and it gives high-resolution images in comparison to conventional fiberscopy.