edfas.org 31 ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 27 NO.2 beam (FIB) and broad Ar ion beam milling, remains essential in the semiconductor industry. While Ga-FIB is the standard for TEM specimen preparation, plasma FIBs utilizing inductively coupled Xe plasma sources are increasingly employed. Careful consideration of the final specimen thickness in relation to the defect or feature size is crucial, posing a significant challenge in sample Fig. 2 (a) Precise analysis plane selection is essential for TEM specimen preparation of complex 3D devices. (b) This STEM image shows a cross-section of a 7 nm FinFET fin structure. Prepared using Ga-FIB followed by Ar ion milling, a specimen thickness of 11.3 nm (t/λ = 0.06) on the silicon substrate, as determined by 300 kV EFTEM was achieved enabling high-resolution STEM imaging. “ION MILLING, INCLUDING FOCUSED ION BEAM (FIB) AND BROAD Ar ION BEAM MILLING, REMAINS ESSENTIAL IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY.” preparation. This short tutorial will address TEM specimen preparation methodologies for advanced semiconductor devices, with a focus on FIB and post-FIB techniques. As an example, advanced FinFET node analysis (Fig. 2) necessitates precise selection of the analysis plane during specimen preparation due to its intricate 3D architecture. Precise control over specimen thinning and the removal of FIB-induced artifacts is achieved by employing Ga-FIB followed by low-energy post-FIB Ar ion milling. TEM crosssections of the 7 nm FinFET node, prepared using FIB followed by post-FIB Ar milling, yielded specimens with thicknesses of approximately 11 nm. For additional information on the EDFAS Education Subcommittee, contact Navid Asadi at nasadi@ufl.edu. (a) (b) NOTEWORTHY NEWS ITC 2025 The International Test Conference (ITC) will be held September 20-26 in San Diego. ITC is the world’s premier conference dedicated to the electronic test of devices, boards, and systems covering the complete cycle from design verification, test, diagnosis, failure analysis, and back to process and design improvement. At ITC, test and design professionals will confront the challenges the industry faces and learn how these issues are being addressed by the combined efforts of academia, design tool and equipment suppliers, designers, and test engineers. ITC, the cornerstone of TestWeek events, offers a wide variety of technical activities targeted at test and design theoreticians and practitioners. The conference includes paper sessions, keynotes, tutorials, case studies, and commercial exhibits and presentations, and a host of ancillary professional meetings. ITC is sponsored by the IEEE. For more information, visit itctestweek.org.
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