Applications of SCM and SCS to Failure Analysis

Scanning capacitance spectroscopy (SCS) is a new way to use a scanning capacitance microscope (SCM) to delineate pn junctions in silicon devices. SCS produces two-dimensional pn junction maps with features as small as 10 nm. It can also estimate the pn junction depletion width and hence doping levels near the junction. This article explains how SCS and SCMs allow a whole new regime of doping-related phenomena to be explored in Si devices and ICs.