Contactless detection of faulty TSV in 3D IC via capacitive coupling

3D IC using Through Silicon Via (TSV) is a promising technology for next generation of integrated circuits. Manufacturing TSV defects like voids and pinholes have to be detected at the test phase to ensure fault free ICs. In this paper a contactless probe utilizing capacitive coupling is presented. The proposed method eliminates the impact of direct probing on TSV and supports the high-density and fine-pitch requirements for TSV probing. 3D full-wave simulations using HFSS and circuit level simulation using ADS show that common TSV defects such as voids and pinholes can be detected successfully.