construction

The IC industry is based mostly on Silicone substrate development and production. One of the major obstacles in Chip design is the thermal limits created by the increasing density of Chips. This problem will become even worse in the next few years due to the nanometric fabrication processes.

There is a growing need for fast real-time tools to help diagnose and solve thermal problems, leakages and hotspots in each and every phase of the IC development cycle, in order to reduce time to market. The magnitude of the economic consequences of design and production errors is very high and increases dramatically as the development of the product advances towards its market exposure.

Thermography techniques like Liquid Crystal mapping, probing and Emissions/NIR sensing are either inaccurate or cumbersome.

4ID is a R&D center for microthermal analysis, development and production of state of the art thermal microscope objectives for the IC and Biology market. 4ID has established over the years a vast knowledge base for chip real time non-intrusive microscopy and thermal analysis.

Following a demand from Intel's product development center in Haifa, 4ID took upon itself a project of creating a versatile micro-thermal analysis station based upon a regular visual microscope based probing station. The station was aimed to create a (relatively) low cost real time thermal station, without impairing the original probing station functionality.

This task forced the 4ID team to overcome mechanical as well as optical and analysis problems.  

A precise quick replacement mechanism was designed and produced to sport two microscopes on an existing XYZ inspection table.  

The final product changed a MERLIN mid-IR camera into a turret nose microscope sporting 2 objectives tailored to fit Intel's specifications, with 2 more optional objective fittings.

A unique quick-replacement mechanism enables the users to accurately focus and lock both the thermal and optical microscope over the same field of view.

The main analysis tool used to process the acquired data is the old reliable FLIR's "researcher" software, modified to adapt the results for silicone and other substrates emissions data.

The final product enables Intel to stress test its products before they hit the market.

The functional testing can vary from thermal mapping, failure analysis, hot spot detection, crack spotting, leakage analysis and much more.

This tool cuts down testing time and enhances Intel's ability to verify its designs.