FAILURE ANALYSIS OF SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS.

The techniques of failure analysis on integrated circuits in various encapsulations are outlined, and a number of actual failures are described. Some of the tests available are potentially more destructive or more liable to give ambiguous results with integrated circuits than with individual transistors. The continued prevalence of bonding faults and other defects of manufacture is noteworthy, and suggests that mere knowledge of what can go wrong is unlikely to make much impact on the reliability problem unless it results in positively improved process controls. Author