On July 1st, Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor Company and Storage Products Company consolidated to form Semiconductor & Storage Products Company.This page describes reliability information of semiconductor products.

Failure Location Identification Using an Emission Microscope

[As of April, 2011]

Purpose
To find out the cause of standby leakage failure during reliability test
Analysis and Result
Analysis was conducted using an emission microscope. Light emission was confirmed from the N-channel MOS in the address decoder circuit (Figure 1). As a result of de-encapsulation, a crystal defect was found in the area of light emission. (Figure 2)
With another sample, light emission was confirmed from the N-channel MOS in the AD converter front stage. (Figure 1)
As a result of de-encapsulation, gate oxide film breakdown was confirmed in the area of light emission. (Figure 2)
Failure mechanism is the n-channel MOS leakage due to crystal defect and gate oxide film breakdown (TDDB)

This is [Figure 1 Example of Standby Leakage Failure due to Crystal Defect].

Figure 1 Example of Standby Leakage Failure due to Crystal Defect

This is [Figure 2 Example of Standby Leakage Failure due to Gate Oxide Film Breakdown].

Figure 2 Example of Standby Leakage Failure due to Gate Oxide Film Breakdown