Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Integrated Circuits Decapsulation Technique Using Mixed Acid Chemistry for Die-Level Failure Analysis

Summary:

Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits has become popular these days with superior speed-power product that permits the development of systems that further made it impossible or impractical to construct using silicon semiconductors. However, failure analysis remains to be very challenging as GaAs material is easily dissolved when it is reacted with fuming nitric acid used during standard decapsulation process. By utilizing enhanced chemical decapsulation technique with mixture of fuming nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid at a low temperature, successful plastic package decapsulation happens to be reproducible mainly for die level failure analysis purposes. The paper aims to develop a new chemical decapsulation approach with optimum parameters needed to successfully decapsulate plastic molded GaAs integrated circuits for die level failure analysis.