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Semiconductors, Microelectronics & Data Storage

Semiconductors, Microelectronics & Data Storage Applications

The demand for ever more sophisticated and intelligent systems whether that is in the home, in a car or in the palm of your hand drives the relentless development in all aspects of the semiconductors and microelectronics industry. Whether analysing a defect in a device for power distribution in an electric car, the through silicon interconnects in a system in package (SIP) device or the abundance and chemistry of contaminant particles in a fabrication process it is important to have the tools available to solve any challenge.

Application Notes

View all of our Semiconductor, Microelectronics & Data Storage application notes

WDS-SEM approach for studying doping in semiconductors

SEM-based WDS approach was used to measure highly doped semiconductor layers. In this work data was acquired from a gallium nitride (GaN), p-type semiconductor material - which is essential for both GaN-based electronics and optical devices. It is important to know the amount of trace impurities that are incorporated into semiconductors as they can significantly affect the electronic properties.

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Understanding How Crystal Structure Links with Performance

NAND device crystal properties were analysed in order to correlate the characteristics of nanoscale crystals with the device performance. TKD analyses permit the correlation of crystallographic nm scale properties with expected device performance characteristics in NAND devices

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The preparation & analysis of 3D nanoparticles on an amorphous substrate using TKD

This application note introduces a new method of sample preparation and analysis using transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) for the study and classification of nanoparticles.

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Photomask Inspection with SEM-EDS - A Critical Part of the Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

This application note will be inspecting photomask quality in terms of defects and cleanliness – including those defects that cannot be identified using optical methods, using Oxford Instruments' Ultim Extreme detector.

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Contamination Investigation on PCBs

This application note demonstrates a SEM based solution combined with EDS for the detection and characterisation of contamination on two PCB samples in the analysis of the failures of PCBs.

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LayerProbe - Analysing Flexible Electronics

LayerProbe enables the analyst to separate the contributions of the substrate and the structures and enables measurements of the thickness and composition at high resolution and in a non-destructive manner.

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Applying nanomanipulation to the EBSD analysis of a gold wire

This application note describes a method of combining Oxford Instrument’s OmniProbe tools and AZtec EBSD system for the manipulation and analysis of a 5μm diameter gold microelectronic wire sample.

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Analysing a NAND Flash memory device using low kV EDS

The combination of X-Max Extreme with GeminiSEM 500 provides a uniquely convenient and powerful imaging and analysis tool for investigating the morphology and chemistry of nano-structures down to less than 10nm. Using the example of ferrocerium nano-particles and GaInAs quantum dots this capability is demonstrated in practice…

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EBSD Applications in the Electronics Industry

This application note provides several brief examples of the use of the EBSD technique and, in particular, the Symmetry S2 detector and the AZtecCrystal data processing software, for the effective characterisation of microstructures in a range of microelectronics samples.

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High quality TEM lamella preparation and on-tip analysis using LayerProbe and the OmniProbe 400

Here we present a new technique that enables measurement of the local thickness and composition of TEM lamellae and discuss its application to the failure analysis of semiconductor devices.

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Nanocolumn Gallium Nitride (GaN) growth control inspection

Checking the quality of Metalorganic vapour-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) overgrowth above an array of GaN nanotubes. Discover how GaN samples containing a high density of nano-columns can be quickly and non-destructively analysed using an Ultim Extreme EDS detector.

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EDS Characterisation of the SRAM device

This application note shows how devices must be characterised to ensure that they have been manufactured correctly and to investigate any failures to achieve the necessary performance.

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