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ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 18 NO. 3
2
PURPOSE: To provide a technical condensation of
information of interest to electronic device failure
analysis technicians, engineers, and managers.
Felix Beaudoin
Editor/Globalfoundries; felix.beaudoin@
globalfoundries.com
Scott D. Henry
Publisher
Mary Anne Fleming
Manager, Technical Journals
Annie Beck
Production Supervisor
Liz Marquard
Managing Editor
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Michael R. Bruce
Consultant
David L. Burgess
Accelerated Analysis
Lihong Cao
Consultant
Jiann Min Chin
Advanced Micro Devices Singapore
Edward I. Cole, Jr.
Sandia National Labs
James J. Demarest
IBM
Christopher L. Henderson
Semitracks Inc.
Jason M. Higgins
TSMC (Wafertech)
Bobby Hooghan
Weatherford Laboratories
Eckhard Langer
Globalfoundries
Philippe H.G. Perdu
CNES France
Rose M. Ring
Globalfoundries
H.S. Silvus, Jr.
Southwest Research Institute
E. Jan Vardaman
TechSearch International, Inc.
Martin Versen
University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim, Germany
Lawrence C. Wagner
LWSN Consulting Inc.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
PRESS RELEASE SUBMISSIONS
Electronic Device Failure Analysis™ (ISSN 1537-0755) is pub-
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Materials Park, OH 44073; tel: 800.336.5152; website: edfas.
org.Copyright©2016byASM International.Receive Electronic
Device Failure Analysis as part of your EDFAS membership
of $88 U.S. per year. Non-member subscription rate is $135
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orthe internalorpersonaluseofspecificclients, isgrantedby
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Electronic Device Failure Analysis is indexed or abstracted by
Compendex, EBSCO, Gale, and ProQuest.
MISSION STATEMENT OF FA
Failure analysis (FA) is an activity that serves to improve business and
minimize losses for a company and its customers. The core business of FA
is to solve problems for our customers by identifying both the root cause of
errorsmade in production or design and by suggesting actions to rectify that
cause. All our other activities (developing newmethods, buying/maintaining
equipment, refining skills) are pursued solely as a means to further the core
business goal of solving our customers’ problems.
PHILOSOPHY OF FA
Failure analysts should strive to be masters of their craft. This means
they should be skilled in applyingmultiple FA techniques and/or FA tools.
Failure analysis is a craft. The failure analyst applies his/her understanding
of the IC togetherwith skill inapplying various FA techniques, whichmay imply
using multiple FA tools, to bring the investigation to a successful conclusion.
The key ingredient in successful FA, apart from a solid theoretical back-
groundanda logical, inquisitive nature, is for the failure analyst tohave access
to a “toolbox” of techniques. The results of each of these assets can shed a
new and different light on the problem. It is by combining the outcomes of
these FA techniques, together withwhat is already known about the problem,
that subsequent steps are guided toward the solution. Therefore, it is a
requirement that a failure analyst, when fully trained, should be the master
of a range of skills and tools and should be able to apply them judiciously to
reach the end goal: solving the customer’s problem.
Each technique shall be mastered by multiple failure analysts in the
group. An analysis is conducted, as far as is practicable, by one analyst
applying various techniques, rather than passing the problem from one
“limited-scope” expert to another.
This second aspect to the philosophy means that multiple engineers and
technicians must be trained in each technique. That is, for a well-run FA lab,
there is no technique that only one person can perform. This applies to the
major fault-localization and sample-deprocessing techniques.
This goal has three important beneficial effects:
• It results in the ability to discuss the approach and results with peers
who are fully versed in the technique and who may suggest alternative
AUGUST 2016 | VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 3
A RESOURCE FOR TECHNICAL INFORMATION AND INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS
ELECTRONIC DEVICE
FAILURE ANALYSIS
(continued on page 37)
GUEST EDITORIAL
WHO IS A FAILURE ANALYSIS ENGINEER?
Nebojša Janković and
Frank Zachariasse,
NXP Semiconductors