Spectroscopic photon emission microscopy: a unique tool for failure analysis of microelectronics devices

Abstract Photon emission microscopy (PEM) is a technique used commonly for failure analysis of microelectronics chips. This technique has it limitations: it can only be used to indicate the place of the failure. In most cases, this is not enough to allow a definition of the failure, i.e. to find out whether it is due to a gate oxide breakdown, a metal short, a junction spiking, etc. In this paper spectral PEM is discussed. It is shown that the spectrum of the light emitted by the failure may offer valuable information about the identity of the failure.