R. E. Mulder, Silicon Labs, Austin, TX; S. Subramanian, T. Chrastecky, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX

Summary: The use of Atomic Force Probe (AFP) analysis in the analysis of semiconductor devices is expanding from its initial purpose of solely characterizing CMOS transistors at the contact level. Other uses of the AFP tool include the full analysis of failing SRAM bit cells, current contrast imaging of SOI transistors, the probing of metallization layers to measure via stack resistance, and use with other tools, such as light emission, to localize and identify defects in logic circuits. This paper will present several case studies in regards to these activities and their results.