Automating Submicron IR Measurements for Failure Analysis

Abstract Fast analysis of small organic contamination at the surface represents a major set of common microelectronics and semiconductor issues. Infrared (IR) microspectroscopy the workhorse for organic contamination is often limited to ~50µm and larger. Many labs move these samples from IR to Raman micro spectroscopy which should achieve higher spatial resolution down to 1µm using high NA objectives but routinely fails to achieve the chemical specificity of these organic contaminants. We will discuss a new IR method that provides organic contamination identification <1µm resolution. We provide this analysis via an automated routine, where optical images including brightfield, cross-polarized or fluorescence images can be used to automatically identify the contamination, provide its approximate shape and size, and identify its X&Y location on the sample, for measurement. The measured spectra is searched to provide a match against stored library spectra to identify the contamination.