Diagnosis of Interconnect Full Open Defects in the Presence of Fan-Out

The development of accurate diagnosis methodologies is important to identify process problems and achieve fast yield improvement. As open defects are becoming dominant in some CMOS technologies, their accurate diagnosis is key to improving the quality of new very large-scale integrated circuits. Widely used interconnect full open diagnosis procedures are based on the assumption that neighboring lines determine the voltage of the defective line. However, this assumption decreases the diagnosis efficiency for opens in interconnect lines with fan-out, where the influence of transistor capacitances is significant. This paper presents a diagnosis methodology for interconnect full open defects which considers and models the impact of transistor parasitic capacitances on the defective node accurately. The methodology is able to properly diagnose interconnect opens with fan-out even in the presence of Byzantine behavior. Diagnosis results for real defective devices from different technology nodes are also provided.