This application claims the priority to Chinese patent application No. 202311167439.9, filed on Sep. 11, 2023, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This application relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing method, in particular to a nanoscale failure analysis method.
Nano prober is a nano probe system that integrates a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). It can perform nanoscale failure analysis on devices in integrated circuit chips, such as electrical characteristic parameter measurement, nanoscale open and short failure locating, and can also perform micro treatment on the surfaces of samples, such as removing residual oxide layers from the surfaces of the samples. At present, test samples can be divided into plane samples and cross-section samples. For most conventional samples, electrical testing can be completed through plane probing; for some special samples with uneven metal patterns or long target areas, cross-section-probing testing is more suitable due to the formation of certain height differences during polishing.
For example, in a flash memory such as Nor Flash, there may be a bit line (BL) short fail case where the addresses of two short-circuited BLs are known. That is, the addresses of the two short-circuited BLs can be determined by testing the chip. However, due to the length of the BL being as long as several hundred micrometers, it is necessary to find the defect that causes the bridging of the two BLs within the target area with length of several hundred micrometers, and it is not known which layer the defect is on.
In response to the BL short fail case mentioned above, the existing nanoscale failure analysis method firstly uses a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) to dig a hole in a cross section at one end of the target area of the sample to expose the metal pattern, then continuously confirms the electrical properties and reduces the range through nano probe testing and a bisection method, then reduces the length of the area to several micrometers, and finally accurately locates the defect through SEM high-voltage observation or TEM physical property analysis.
The existing nanoscale failure analysis method has the following problems:
According to some embodiments in this application, a nanoscale failure analysis method is disclosed in the following steps:
In some cases, in step 1, after the first sample is placed on the sample stage, the sample stage is placed at the height of a common focal point of the ion beam and the electron beam.
In some cases, in step 1, after the sample stage is placed at the height of the common focal point of the ion beam and the electron beam, and before the cutting is performed, the nanoscale failure analysis method further includes setting the angle of the sample stage to a first angle, the first angle being between −38° and 52°.
In some cases, in step 2, before the protective layer is deposited, the nanoscale failure analysis method further includes setting the angle of the sample stage to a second angle.
In some cases, the second angle is an angle obtained by anticlockwise rotating for 38° based on the first angle, so that the direction of the electron beam is perpendicular to the first cross section.
In some cases, in step 2, the material of the protective layer includes silicon dioxide.
In some cases, in step 2, the thickness of the protective layer is 0.03 μm-0.07 μm.
In some cases, in step 3, after the first sample is transferred to the nano prober, the nanoscale failure analysis method further includes performing metal diffusion testing to verify that the metal diffusion has not occurred; in a case that the metal diffusion testing finds that the metal diffusion has occurred, increasing the thickness of the protective layer in step 2 at a next time.
In some cases, step 1 to step 5 form a group of cyclic steps, and in the nanoscale failure analysis method, a plurality of groups of cyclic steps are performed until a fail position is found in the first sample.
In some cases, in step 1, the selected area of the first sample is set according to a target area, and the target area is the smallest analysis area containing the fail position confirmed before step 1; the first cross section is greater than or equal to a projection area of the target area on the first cross section, so that the metal pattern in the target area is all exposed on the first cross section; in step 2, the coverage area of the protective layer is greater than or equal to the projection area of the target area on the first cross section;
In some cases, the target area is gradually reduced by adopting a bisection method.
In some cases, in step 4, the ion source is Ar plasmas, and the surface micro treatment is implemented by bombarding the first sample with the Ar plasmas.
In some cases, in step 4, the morphology of the metal pattern on the first cross section is observed at 0.5 kV to determine the stopping time of the surface micro treatment, and the time of the surface micro treatment is 10-20 min.
In some cases, in step 1, the first sample is obtained through polishing, and the first sample is polished to a metal layer where the metal pattern is located.
In some cases, the metal pattern includes a bit line, and the length of the first sample along the length direction of the bit line is greater than or equal to the length of the bit line; the width of the first sample along the width direction of the bit line is greater than the width of a plurality of bit lines, the plurality of bit lines at least include fail twin bit lines and reference twin bit lines, the pair of fail bit lines are short-circuited, and the pair of reference bit lines are not conducted;
In some cases, the target area in the last group of cyclic steps is a final target area, the length and width of the final target area are within the range of TEM observation, and the fail position is located in the final target area;
In some cases, the target area in the first group of cyclic steps is an initial target area, and the length of the initial target area is several hundred micrometers;
In this application, the first sample is not directly transferred to the nano prober after the first sample is cut by adopting the ion beam in the FIB machine and the first cross section is formed, but a protective layer is deposited on the first cross section by adopting the electron beam in the FIB machine. Under the protection of the protective layer, metal diffusion can be prevented in the process of transferring the first sample to the nano prober. After transferring to the nano prober, the protective layer is removed by adopting an ion source by using the characteristic that the nano prober is provided with the ion source. Then, electrical testing is performed. Since no metal diffusion occurs, the fail position can be analyzed through electrical testing. Therefore, this application can perform cross-section-probing testing on the sample by adopting the nano prober, can also prevent the diffusion of the metal exposed on the cross section in the process of transferring the sample to the nano prober, can implement fail position analysis through the electrical testing by the nano prober, and can continuously reduce the range of the target area containing the fail position, thus quickly finding the fail position, reducing the failure analysis time and workload, reducing the difficulty in finding the fail position and fail structure, and improving the accuracy of failure analysis.
This application will be further described below in detail in combination with the specific embodiments with reference to the drawings.
Referring to
In step 1, referring to
In this embodiment of this application, after the first sample 301 is placed on the sample stage 203, the sample stage 203 is placed at the height of a common focal point of the ion beam and the electron beam.
After the sample stage 203 is placed at the height of the common focal point of the ion beam and the electron beam, and before the cutting is performed, the nanoscale failure analysis method further includes setting the angle of the sample stage 203 to a first angle α1, and the first angle α1 is between −38° and 52°. Three dashed lines correspond to 0°, −38°, and 52°, respectively. The 0° dashed line represents the horizontal line. The first angle is an angle relative to the horizontal dashed line.
In this embodiment of this application, the selected area of the first sample 301 is set according to a target area, and the target area is the smallest analysis area containing the fail position confirmed before step 1. The first cross section 302 is greater than or equal to a projection area 304 of the target area on the first cross section 302, so that the metal pattern 303 in the target area is all exposed on the first cross section 302. Referring to
In this embodiment of this application, the first sample 301 is obtained through polishing, and the first sample 301 is polished to a metal layer where the metal pattern 303 is located.
In some embodiments, the metal pattern 303 includes a bit line, and the length of the first sample 301 along the length direction of the bit line is greater than or equal to the length of the bit line; the width of the first sample 301 along the width direction of the bit line is greater than the width of a plurality of bit lines, the plurality of bit lines at least include fail twin bit lines and reference twin bit lines, the fail twin bit lines are short-circuited, and the reference twin bit lines are not conducted. Referring to
A top side of the first cross section 302 is along the width direction of the bit line. In
Referring to
In step 2, a protective layer is deposited on the first cross section 302 by using an electron beam of the FIB machine. In
In this embodiment of this application, referring to
Referring to
The material of the protective layer includes silicon dioxide. In some embodiments, the thickness of the protective layer is 0.03 μm-0.07 μm.
In this embodiment of this application, the coverage area of the protective layer is greater than or equal to the projection area 304 of the target area on the first cross section 302. Referring to
In step 3, the first sample 301 is transferred to a nano prober. The protective layer is used for protecting the metal pattern 303 and preventing metal diffusion in a transfer process.
In this embodiment of this application, after the first sample 301 is transferred to the nano prober, the nanoscale failure analysis method further includes performing metal diffusion testing to verify that the metal diffusion has not occurred; in a case that the metal diffusion testing finds that the metal diffusion has occurred, increasing the thickness of the protective layer in step 2 at a next time. In some embodiments, the metal diffusion testing only needs to be performed in the process of selecting the thickness of the protective layer. After the thickness of the protective layer is selected, it represents that the protective layer can achieve the protection of the metal pattern 303, so it is not necessary to perform further metal diffusion testing in the future.
In this embodiment of this application, the metal diffusion testing is implemented by performing leakage testing on the reference twin bit lines. In a case that the leakage in the leakage testing is large, it indicates that there is metal diffusion. In a case that there is no leakage, it indicates that no metal diffusion has occurred. Referring to
In step 4, surface micro treatment is performed on the first sample 301 by using an ion source in the nano prober to remove the protective layer and expose the metal pattern 303.
In this embodiment of this application, the ion source is Ar plasmas, and the surface micro treatment is implemented by bombarding the first sample 301 with the Ar plasmas.
The morphology of the metal pattern 303 on the first cross section 302 is observed at 0.5 kV to determine the stopping time of the surface micro treatment, and the time of the surface micro treatment is 10-20 min.
Referring to
In step 5, probing is performed on the metal pattern 303 and electrical testing is implemented through the nano prober.
In this embodiment of this application, step 1 to step 5 form a group of cyclic steps, and in the nanoscale failure analysis method, a plurality of groups of cyclic steps are performed until a fail position is found in the first sample 301.
In this embodiment of this application, in step 1 of each group of cyclic steps, the target area is gradually reduced.
The target area is gradually reduced by adopting a bisection method.
Referring to
The width of the target area in each group of cyclic steps is less than or equal to the width of the top side of the first cross section 302.
Referring to
The target area in the last group of cyclic steps is a final target area, the length and width of the final target area are within the range of TEM observation, and the fail position is located in the final target area. The length of the final target area is several micrometers. In
After the last group of cyclic steps are completed, the nanoscale failure analysis method further includes performing TEM plane observation and TEM cross section observation on the final target area to determine a defect structure of the fail position. Due to the common knowledge of those skilled in the art, it is necessary to prepare a TEM sample before performing TEM observation, that is, to polish the first sample according to the size of the final target area to obtain the TEM sample, and then perform TEM observation. Through TEM observation, a clear structure of the defect at the fail position can be obtained. On the plane of the TEM sample, the TEM plane observation can obtain a TEM plane view result, and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and line scan analysis can also be performed to obtain EDS and line scan analysis structures. On the cross section of the TEM sample, a TEM cross section structure can be obtained, and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) analysis can also be performed to obtain an EELS analysis result.
In this embodiment of this application, the first sample 301 is not directly transferred to the nano prober after the first sample 301 is cut by adopting the ion beam in the FIB machine and the first cross section 302 is formed, but a protective layer is deposited on the first cross section 302 by adopting the electron beam in the FIB machine. Under the protection of the protective layer, metal diffusion can be prevented in the process of transferring the first sample 301 to the nano prober. After transferring to the nano prober, the protective layer is removed by adopting an ion source by using the characteristic that the nano prober is provided with the ion source. Then, electrical testing is performed. Since no metal diffusion occurs, the fail position can be analyzed through electrical testing. Therefore, this embodiment of this application can perform cross-section-probing testing on the sample by adopting the nano prober, can also prevent the diffusion of the metal exposed on the cross section in the process of transferring the sample to the nano prober, can implement fail position analysis through the electrical testing by the nano prober, and can continuously reduce the range of the target area containing the fail position, thus quickly finding the fail position, reducing the failure analysis time and workload, reducing the difficulty in finding the fail position and fail structure, and improving the accuracy of failure analysis.
This application has been described above in detail through the specific embodiments, which, however, do not constitute limitations to this application. Without departing from the principle of this application, those skilled in the art may also make many modifications and improvements, which should also be considered as included in the scope of protection of this application.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
202311167439.9 | Sep 2023 | CN | national |