Patent ID: 7786436
Filing Date: 2010-08-31
Classification: G01R,H01L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for identifying an abnormal discontinuity in a vertical conducting connection (contact/via) in an integrated circuit comprising: a) a focused ion beam system to scan an ion beam over the contact/via so as to do at least one of: removing and depositing contact/via material; b) a detector to collect a secondary particle signal from the contact/via material that gets removed; c) a first sub-system for storing the secondary particle signal from the contact/via in time as well as x-y scan position; d) a second sub-system for correlating secondary particle signals and identifying discontinuities in the correlated secondary particle signals; e) a third sub-system for optimizing a display of the abnormal discontinuity; and f) a computer configured to implement software aspects of a)-e).