Magnetic microscopy for ground plane current detection: a fast and reliable technique for current leakage localization by means of magnetic simulations

The More than Moore axis of development in microelectronic technologies is generating increasingly complex assembly techniques. It has therefore become very hard to localize a current leakage inside such structures. One very important problem which has not yet been faced is the case of a current leakage on a ground plane, both at system and PCB level. This kind of problem cannot be solved with the techniques currently in use. Based on the recent developments of the magnetic microscopy techniques which involve the use of magnetic simulations to localize current leakages, we have developed a new methodology which allows us to localize currents flowing inside ground planes. To do that, we also developed a new way of generating magnetic simulations, which significantly increases the performance of localization in terms of analysis time and resolution.

[1]  H. Goldstein.  Packages go vertical , 2001 .

[2]  F. C. Wellstood,et al.  Scanning SQUID microscopy for current imaging , 2001, Microelectron. Reliab..

[3]  J. Gaudestad,et al.  Failure analysis on resistive opens with Scanning SQUID Microscopy , 2004, 2004 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium. Proceedings.

[4]  F. Infante,et al.  A new Methodology for Short Circuit Localization on Integrated Circuits using Magnetic Microscopy Technique Coupled with Simulations , 2009, 2009 16th IEEE International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits.

[5]  G.Q. Zhang,et al.  The rationale and paradigm of "more than Moore" , 2006, 56th Electronic Components and Technology Conference 2006.

[6]  L. A. Knauss,et al.  Noise and spatial resolution in SQUID microscopy , 2001 .

[7]  Said F. Al-Sarawi,et al.  A Review of 3-D Packaging Technology , 1998 .

[8]  S. I. Woods,et al.  Advances in magnetic-based current imaging for high resistance defects and sub-micron resolution , 2004, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits. IPFA 2004 (IEEE Cat. No.04TH8743).

[9]  Philippe Perdu,et al.  Magnetic microscopy for 3D devices: Defect localization with high resolution and long working distance on complex system in package , 2009, Microelectron. Reliab..

[10]  John P. Wikswo,et al.  The Magnetic Inverse Problem for NDE , 1996 .

[11]  N. G. Sepulveda,et al.  Using a magnetometer to image a two‐dimensional current distribution , 1989 .