Determining the causes of failures in semiconductors often requires removing overlying material to expose the failed circuit element for high-resolution imaging in an electron microscope. Combining laser ablation, to remove the bulk of the material, with FIB, to cut and polish a final cross-section of the suspect element, achieves the speed and precision needed in this operation.
The latest iteration of this combined approach, which implements parallel processing with laser ablation and Plasma FIB, provides increases in analytical throughput, efficiency, and flexibility. In this 3D Incites article, we present several examples demonstrating time savings of 70% to > 95%.
