JPH0590372A - Method and apparatus for detecting defect of semiconductor integrated circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To drive some of or all of transistors on a semiconductor highly integrated circuit freely to detect defects on the circuit by photoluminescence. CONSTITUTION:A performance test signal pattern for driving a semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 is generated by a circuit tester 100. The performance test signal pattern is transmitted to a pattern generator 200 through an Ethernet or a GPIB cable and the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 is driven by the pattern generator 200. Photoluminescence from defects is amplified by a photoluminescence amplifier 400 to detect the detects on the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit defect detecting method and a semiconductor integrated circuit defect detecting device for detecting a defective portion in a highly integrated semiconductor integrated circuit by weak light emission from the surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, a defect detection method has been widely used in which a weak light emission from a defective portion in a semiconductor integrated circuit of this type is amplified to detect the defective portion. In this defect detection method, a DC voltage is applied to a semiconductor integrated circuit, and by this DC voltage application, a dielectric breakdown point of an oxide film or a transistor to which a high electric field is applied is detected at the presence or absence of weak light emission and its position. Was the way.

[0003]

However, since the conventional method of detecting a defect in a semiconductor integrated circuit is a method of applying a DC voltage to the semiconductor integrated circuit, only a small part of the devices on the semiconductor integrated circuit are driven. Not done. Therefore, it is not possible to detect defects in all devices on the semiconductor integrated circuit. Further, it has been impossible to select a portion on the semiconductor integrated circuit to be driven, and it has not been possible to select a portion in which a defect is detected.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to detect a defect in all devices on a semiconductor integrated circuit and to arbitrarily select a portion on the semiconductor integrated circuit where a defect is to be detected. To provide a defect detection method and a defect detection device.

[0005]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of detecting a defect in a semiconductor integrated circuit, wherein an alternating current signal of a predetermined operation test signal pattern is created from a circuit tester and the alternating current signal is applied to the semiconductor integrated circuit. It is characterized in that the defective portion of the semiconductor integrated circuit is detected by detecting the weak light emission generated from the surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of detecting a defect in a semiconductor integrated circuit, wherein in the configuration of the first aspect, an AC signal is sent to a pattern generator and the pattern generator drives the semiconductor integrated circuit. The defect detecting apparatus for a semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 3, further comprising a circuit tester for creating an AC signal of a predetermined test signal pattern for the semiconductor integrated circuit, and the semiconductor integrated circuit being applied with the application of the AC signal to the semiconductor integrated circuit. A light emitting amplifier is provided for detecting a defective portion of the semiconductor integrated circuit by amplifying the weak light emission generated from the surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a defect detecting device for a semiconductor integrated circuit according to the third aspect, further comprising a pattern generator for inputting an AC signal and driving the semiconductor integrated circuit based on the AC signal. ..

[0008]

According to the structure of the present invention, an AC signal having a predetermined test signal pattern for a semiconductor integrated circuit is created by a circuit tester, and this AC signal is applied to a semiconductor integrated circuit to be examined for a defective portion. The circuit is driven. The AC signal drives part of the circuit or all of the circuit expected to have a defective portion.

When a signal is applied to the device including the defective portion by the AC signal, the semiconductor integrated circuit emits light in the portion of the device including the defective portion, and the light is emitted from the surface to the outside. The light emission amplifier detects a defective portion of the semiconductor integrated circuit by amplifying weak light emission from the surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the emission analysis method, which is the basic principle of the present invention, will be described with reference to FIG. Figure 2
Each of (a) to (c) is a cross-sectional view of one MOS type transistor in a semiconductor highly integrated circuit, where 10 is a gate, 20 is a gate oxide film, 30 is a source, 40 is a drain, and 50 is a substrate.

First, as shown in FIG. 2A, when carriers 1 running inside the transistor obtain energy from the electric field, they become hot carriers 2 near the drain. When this hot carrier 2 releases energy, it emits light (arrow A). That is, when the hot carrier 2 obtains very high energy from the electric field due to a defective design, very strong light emission is observed. Therefore, a poorly designed transistor can be detected on the LSI from this light emission.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2B, even when the gate oxide film 20 has a dielectric breakdown in the portion 3,
Luminescence is seen (arrow B). When a dielectric breakdown occurs, the electric current concentrates on the breakdown site, so that light emission can be observed when high-energy electrons release energy. Further, as shown in FIG. 2C, light emission can be seen even when the diffusion layer, for example, the drain 40 is broken at the portion 4 (arrow B).

In addition, light emission is observed even when latch-up occurs. Next, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this semiconductor integrated circuit failure detection device, the circuit tester 100 detects a part or all of the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 for which a failure should be detected (a part of the circuit expected to have a failure part or the entire circuit). A signal group for driving (hereinafter, referred to as an operation test signal pattern) is created, and a pattern generator is provided by an interface bus (IEEE Std. 488-1975 standard, commonly known as GPIB cable, hereinafter referred to as GPIB cable), or Ethernet. Transfer to 200. At this time, the operation test signal pattern is converted into the format of the pattern generator 200 and sent.

The circuit tester 100 creates an arbitrary operation test signal pattern for analyzing the operation of the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300, converts it to a form suitable for the format of the pattern generator 200, and converts it. Sent to
It is also possible to output the operation test signal pattern in a form capable of directly driving the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300. The pattern generator 200 cannot create an operation test signal pattern by itself, but stores the operation test signal pattern transferred from the circuit tester 100 in a memory and reads the stored operation test signal pattern. The semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 is converted into a drivable signal format and then supplied to the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 to drive the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300. FIG. 4 shows an example of the waveform of the operation test signal pattern applied to the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 from the pattern generator 200. The waveform is completely different depending on the type of the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 to be subjected to the operation analysis. However, the number of signal lines, for example, n, is lined up, each of which is a combination of high (for example, 5 V) and low (for example, 0 V) voltages, and all signals are synchronized.

If there is a defect on the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300, light emission is generated at the defective portion according to the principle described above, and the light is emitted from the surface of the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 to the outside. By amplifying this light emission by the light emission amplifier 400, it is possible to know at which position on the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 the defect has occurred. Semiconductor highly integrated circuit 30
Once the operation test signal pattern for driving 0 is stored in the memory of the pattern generator 200, the pattern on the memory can be read out for failure analysis at any time regardless of the circuit tester 100. is there.

Reference numeral 500 is a power source. According to this embodiment, the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 is used in the circuit tester 100.
Since the defective signal is detected by supplying an AC signal having a predetermined operation test signal pattern from the pattern generator 200, the device on the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 can be freely driven, and the semiconductor highly integrated circuit can be freely driven. It is possible to easily detect defects in all the devices on the semiconductor device 300, and it is possible to arbitrarily select a portion on the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 where a defect is to be detected.

Further, unlike the circuit tester 100, the pattern generator 200 has only a function of generating an operation test signal pattern and not a function of creating an operation test signal pattern, but is larger than the circuit tester 100. ， The price is about one tenth, it is easy to carry such as installing it near the light emitting amplifier 400, and it is possible to perform the operation test even if the circuit tester 100 is not nearby. It is also possible to carry out the test efficiently.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the circuit tester 100 is directly connected to the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300. In this embodiment, the circuit tester 100
Since the operation test signal pattern capable of driving the higher semiconductor integrated circuit 300 is directly generated and the higher semiconductor integrated circuit 300 is directly driven by the circuit tester 100, the semiconductor high integrated circuit can be easily converted without converting the pattern. 300
Can be driven. That is, the pattern generator 20
It is possible to save the trouble of creating the signal conversion software by interposing 0, and the operation test of the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 is easy when the semiconductor highly integrated circuit 300 is near the circuit tester 100.

[0019]

According to the present invention, since an AC signal is supplied to a semiconductor integrated circuit to detect a defect, devices on the semiconductor integrated circuit can be freely driven and all the devices on the semiconductor integrated circuit can be driven. It is possible to easily detect a defect of the device, and it is possible to arbitrarily select a portion on the semiconductor integrated circuit where the defect is to be detected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B are cross-sectional views of a MOS transistor for explaining the principle of failure detection in the present invention, FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view showing a state of light emission by hot carriers, and FIG. 2B is a dielectric breakdown of a gate oxide film. Cross-sectional view showing the state of light emission of
(C) is a cross-sectional view showing a state of light emission due to destruction of the diffusion layer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram showing an example of an operation test signal pattern.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 gate 20 gate oxide film 30 source 40 drain 50 substrate 100 circuit tester 200 pattern generator 300 semiconductor highly integrated circuit 400 light emission amplifier 500 power supply

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A circuit tester creates an AC signal of a predetermined operation test signal pattern, and detects weak light emission generated from the surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit when the AC signal is applied to the semiconductor integrated circuit. Accordingly, a defect detection method for a semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising detecting a defect location of the semiconductor integrated circuit. 2. The defect detection method for a semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein an AC signal is sent to the pattern generator, and the semiconductor integrated circuit is driven by the pattern generator. 3. A circuit tester for generating an alternating current signal of a predetermined test signal pattern for a semiconductor integrated circuit is provided, and a feeble generated from the surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit when the alternating current signal is applied to the semiconductor integrated circuit. A semiconductor integrated circuit defect detecting device, wherein a light emitting amplifier for detecting a defective portion of the semiconductor integrated circuit is provided by amplifying the emitted light. 4. The defect detecting device for a semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 3, further comprising a pattern generator for inputting an AC signal and driving the semiconductor integrated circuit based on the AC signal.