Laser-Assisted Device Alteration (LADA) for fault isolation and quick design fix in marginality failure

Marginal failure is common in failure analysis in which the failure is dependant to voltage or timing. Instead of using conventional die top microprobing to isolate the failure location, Laser Assisted Device Alteration (LADA) together with modified test pattern to isolate the failure location by incorporating Atomic Force Probe (AFP) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to determine the failure. In addition, LADA helps to provide information about the sensitive circuitry. This leads to design fix that will overcome the marginality of failure and thus improve overall yield.