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ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 19 NO. 1
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Kirk Martin
has 40 years of experience in designing and building specialized equipment for all
aspects of the semiconductor industry, from crystal growth through final test and failure analysis. In
2005, hebecame a founder of RKDEngineering, whichdesigns andbuilds equipment for semiconductor
failure analysis and sample preparation. Kirk has patents in the fields of sample preparation, chemical
vapor generation, fluid handling, and electrostatic discharge detection and mitigation. His previous
positions include Vice President at Nisene Technology Group; Director of Advanced Products at Texas
Materials Labs, amanufacturer of specialty semiconductormaterials; and Vice President at Automated
Technology, Inc., a manufacturer of front-end test and measurement systems.
NancyWeavers
has 30 years of experience inapplications in the semiconductor and test equipment
industries. She started at National Semiconductor in 1982. In 2006, she became the Chief Executive
Officer of Left Coast Instruments, a semiconductor test equipment and electron microscope imaging
sales and marketing company. She sits on the Board of Advisors for the San Joaquin Delta College
Electron Microscopy Program. Previously, she was a Vice President at Nisene Technology Group.
MICROSCOPY &MICROANALYSIS 2017 MEETING
The Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) 2017 meeting will be held
Aug. 6 to 10, 2017,
in St. Louis, MO, with a theme of
“Anniversaries.” The Scientific Program features the latest advances in the biological, physical, and analytical sciences
as well as techniques and instrumentation along with special anniversary lectures. A special symposium will celebrate
50 years of atom probe tomography. Complementing the program is one of the largest exhibitions of microscopy and
microanalysis instrumentation and resources in the world. Educational opportunities include a variety of Sunday short
courses, tutorials, evening vendor tutorials, pre-meeting workshops, and in-week intensive workshops. The opening
reception offers an opportunity to meet new people in the field and renew old acquaintances, and the Monday morning
Plenary Session features showcase talks from outstanding researchers as well as recognition of the major Society and
Meeting awardwinners. Therewill be other important awards conferred during themeeting, including daily poster awards
to highlight the best student posters in instrumentation and techniques as well as biological and physical applications
of microscopy and microanalysis.
M&M is co-sponsored by the Microscopy Society of America and the Microanalysis Society and, for the first time, by
the International Field Emission Society. For more information, visit microscopy.org/MandM/2017.
NOTEWORTHY NEWS
Mixing corrosion inhibitors directly into the bulk acid
used for decapsulation may produce similar results,
but the mixture has a limited lifetime due to solubility
limitations and slow reactions between the etchant and
inhibitor. Bulkmixingmay also precipitatematerials that
will damage the fluid pump inside an automatic acid
decapsulator. “On the fly” mixing of the inhibitor and
etchant requires a mixture lifetime of only a few seconds
to be effective, and there are no particulate concerns.
REFERENCES
1. M. Lefevre, E. Noraz, and D. Veychard: “Repeatable Method for
Automated Decapsulation of Silver Alloy Wire Packages,”
Proc. 41st
Int. Symp. Test. Fail. Anal. (ISTFA),
Nov. 1-5, 2015.
2. A.I. Lutsyk et al.: “Solubility of Iodine in the SystemWater-Nitric Acid,”
Russ. J. Appl. Chem.,
July 2004,
77
(7), pp. 1195-97.
3. J.S. Carter:
J. Chem. Soc.,
1925,
127,
pp. 2861-65.