THE USES OF SCANNING ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY FOR STUDYING SEMICONDUCTOR-DEVICES

The continuing increase in complexity and the reductions in the dimensions of semiconductor devices have created the need for ever improving techniques to analyse these devices. Over the past two decades scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and its associated techniques have proved essential for the study and failure analysis of semiconductor devices. This paper describes the more commonly used techniques, including basic imaging modes, voltage contrast, electron beam induced currents and microanalysis and offers recent practical examples where the techniques have solved problems within the telecommunications industry.