Thermally Induced Voltage Alteration (TIVA) applied to ESD Induced Failures

Thermally Induced Voltage Alteration (TIVA) and Seebeck Effect Imaging (SEI) techniques can be successfully used for characterization of ESD protection structures submitted to Electro Static Discharge step stress and for IC's failure analysis. In this paper, we show two case studies where the techniques proved useful for the localization of an abnormal resistance path on a test pattern as well as of an ESD induced leakage path on a device failing during incoming acceptance tests. Scanning Laser Beam based techniques overcome also some limitations of emission microscopy analysis, largely used for ESD failure localization.