November_EDFA_Digital

edfas.org ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 22 NO. 4 2 PURPOSE: To provide a technical condensation of information of interest to electronic device failure analysis technicians, engineers, and managers. Nicholas Antoniou Editor/PrimeNano nicholas@primenanoinc.com Scott D. Henry Publisher Mary Anne Fleming Manager, Technical Journals Kelly Sukol Production Supervisor Joanne Miller Managing Editor Victoria Burt Contributing Editor ASSOCIATE EDITORS Navid Asadi University of Florida Guillaume Bascoul CNES France Felix Beaudoin GlobalFoundries Michael R. Bruce Consultant David L. Burgess Accelerated Analysis Jiann Min Chin Advanced Micro Devices Singapore Edward I. Cole, Jr. Sandia National Labs Szu Huat Goh GlobalFoundries Singapore Ted Kolasa Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Rose M. Ring Howard Hughes Research Labs LLC Tom Schamp Materials Analytical Services LLC David Su Yi-Xiang Investment Co. Paiboon Tangyunyong Sandia National Labs Martin Versen University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim, Germany FOUNDING EDITORS Edward I. Cole, Jr. Sandia National Labs Lawrence C. Wagner LWSN Consulting Inc. GRAPHIC DESIGN Jan Nejedlik, designbyj.com PRESS RELEASE SUBMISSIONS magazines@asminternational.org Electronic Device Failure Analysis™ (ISSN 1537-0755) is pub- lished quarterly by ASM International ® , 9639 Kinsman Road, Materials Park, OH 44073; tel: 800.336.5152; website: edfas. org.Copyright©2020byASMInternational.Receive Electronic Device Failure Analysis as part of your EDFAS membership. Non-member subscription rate is $150 U.S. per year. Authorizationtophotocopy itemsfor internalorpersonaluse, orthe internalorpersonaluseofspecificclients, isgrantedby ASM Internationalfor librariesandotherusersregisteredwith theCopyrightClearanceCenter(CCC)TransactionalReporting Service, provided that the base fee of $19 per article is paid directlytoCCC,222RosewoodDrive,Danvers,MA01923,USA. Electronic Device Failure Analysis is indexed or abstracted by Compendex, EBSCO, Gale, and ProQuest. W orking semiconductor failure analysis through a global pandemic is complicated. Knowing people who have been seriously impacted with illness, layoffs, or furloughs leaves me feeling privileged in spite of difficultiesmeeting customer needs while juggling social distancing requirements, supply chain issues, and other COVID-19 related “uncertain- ties” that can hinder productivity. Generally, our work is in a critical industry where response to the pandemic has led to high demand for products such as laptops, routers, and servers needed to support remote work, learning, entertainment, and shopping. Further, these things we help build and deliver are credited in helping the rest of society deal with the pandemic. Social distancing doesn’t change the criticality of the work, or the techni- cal challenges. But solving challenging problems in semiconductor FA often requires sharing detailed thoughts, ideas, and test plans between peoplewith diverse ways of thinking. Circuit designers, test engineers, physicists, chem- ists, materials scientists (educated and working all around the world) collect and piece together clues to determine root cause and develop mitigations. These interactions are abigpart of whatmakes ourwork rewarding; exercising our brains, learning eachother’s perspectives, coming tonewunderstandings. Where this workmight have been done beforewith close-working teams, the pandemic pushes us to flex communication skills to be as effective. ISTFA traditionally excels at bringing together people with different backgrounds, both educational and experiential, delivering high value, by promoting the sharing of knowledge and the development of capabilities for problem solving. I’m sure most of the readership was disappointed by the news in September that this year’s ISTFA would be canceled in response to COVID-19 restrictions in California. The scheduled ISTFA Virtual Workshop is an opportunity to deliver value in a different way. From what I’ve seen this summer, virtual venue providers are learning quickly to deliver value in a way that attendees are finding more and more likeable. I’ve really enjoyed having clear view of all slides and easy control of sound which are issues I often have at in-person conferences. I really like sitting at a full size keyboard for taking notes without having toworry thatmy typing is bugging the person sitting next tome. I’mstill concerned about what ismissed by not really being there and I miss the in-person interactions that I feel build community, but virtual conferences can bring significantly greater attendee numbers due to big reductions to cost and time for travel. While I hope next year’s confer- ence will return to traditional, it seems likely that we’ll see virtual and hybrid NOVEMBER 2020 | VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 4 A RESOURCE FOR TECHNICAL INFORMATION AND INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS GUEST EDITORIAL THE ROLE OF EDFAS/ISTFA REGARDLESS OF THE PANDEMIC Brendan Foran, The Aerospace Corporation brendan.foran@aero.org edfas.org (continued on page 43) Foran