Slurry Usage Reduction for Failure Analysis Sample Preparation

This paper describes slurry usage reduction for failure analysis (FA). The slurry is applied during final fine polishing for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) sample preparation in failure analysis. The three main factors, slurry concentration, polishing time and down pressure have been evaluated to maintain or improve the SEM images quality while reducing slurry consumables cost. The 0.05 mum blue colloidal silica diluted with de-ionized (DI) water with the ratio of 1:1 has been proven as optimized solution to save up to 46% of total slurry cost annually.