Integrated time dependent dielectric breakdown reliability testing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9448277-B2
Application number	US-201213544080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2012
Priority date	Jun 22, 2012
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

Systems for reliability testing include a picometer configured to measure a leakage current across a device under test (DUT); a camera configured to measure optical emissions from the DUT based on a timing of the measurement of the leakage current; and a test system configured to apply a stress voltage to the DUT and to correlate the leakage current with the optical emissions using a processor to determine a time and location of a defect occurrence within the DUT by locating instances of increased noise in the leakage current that correspond in time with instances of increased optical emissions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for reliability testing, comprising:
a picometer configured to measure a leakage current across a device under test (DUT);
a camera configured to measure optical emissions from the DUT based on a timing of the measurement of the leakage current; and
a test system configured to apply a stress voltage to the DUT and to correlate the leakage current with the optical emissions using a processor to determine a time and location of a defect occurrence within the DUT by locating instances of increased noise in the leakage current that correspond in time with instances of increased optical emissions.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the test system is configured to convolve a vector formed from electrical measurements with a vector formed from optical measurements.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the test system is configured to calculate the maximum value of the convolution as

Corr
=

max
(

∑
j

⁢

⁢

E
⁡

(
j
)

⁢

I
⁡

(

k
+
1
-
j

)

)

,

where k=1, . . . , m+n−1, m is a number of electrical measurements, n is a number of optical measurements, E is the optical measurement vector, and I is the electrical measurement vector.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the test system is further configured to halt said stress, electrical measurement, and optical measurement, based on said correlation.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein picometer is further configured to periodically repeat the electrical measurement.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the test system is further configured to segment an image of the DUT and determine a maximum emission intensity for each segment to localize emissions.

7. A system for reliability testing, comprising:
a picometer configured to periodically measure a leakage current across a device under test (DUT) to form an electrical measurement vector;
a camera configured to measure optical emissions from the DUT based on a timing of the measurement of the leakage current; and
a test system configured to apply a stress voltage to the DUT, to segment an image of the DUT and determine a maximum emission intensity for each segment to localize emissions and form an optical emission measurement vector, to convolve the electrical measurement vector with the optical emission measurement vector to form a convolved vector, and to determine a maximum value in the convolved vector to correlate the leakage current with the optical emissions using a processor to determine a time and location of a defect occurrence within the DUT.

Assignees

• Chen Jifeng
• Pfeiffer Dirk
• Shaw Thomas M
• Song Peilin
• Stellari Franco
• IBM

Inventors

• Chen Jifeng
• Pfeiffer Dirk
• Shaw Thomas M
• Song Peilin
• Stellari Franco

Classifications

• G01R31/311

  of integrated circuits {(G01R31/31728 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G01R31/2855 Primary

  Environmental, reliability or burn-in testing · CPC title

• G01R31/2858

  Measuring of material aspects, e.g. electro-migration [EM], hot carrier injection · CPC title

• G01R31/2879 Primary

  related to electrical aspects, e.g. to voltage or current supply or stimuli or to electrical loads · CPC title

• G01R31/281

  Specific types of tests or tests for a specific type of fault, e.g. thermal mapping, shorts testing (G01R31/2818 takes precedence) · CPC title