ADVANCED FAILURE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE LOW ENERGY CHARGE-INDUCED VOLTAGE ALTERATION Transfer of National Laboratory technologies to the private sector to enhance U.S. economic competitiveness is a mission of Sandia National Laboratories. In accordance with current legislation, Sandia is seeking industrial partners for the licensing and commercialization of the following technology. Two years ago, Sandia developed charge-induced voltage alteration (CIVA) to localize open interconnections. Recently, Sandia developed and patented LECIVA (Low Energy Charge-Induced Voltage Alteration) as an improved scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique to find open conductors in passivated ICs. LECIVA builds on new experimental work showing that the dielectric surface equilibrium voltage has an electron flux density dependence when using low electron beam energies (less than 1.0 keV). LECIVA images are produced from the voltage fluctuations of a constant-current power supply as an electron beam is scanned over the IC surface. For LECIVA analysis, open conductors can be grouped into two categories: (1) opens that exhibit a significant amount of quantum mechanical electron tunneling: and (2) ``complete'' open conductors that communicate no significant electrical signal across the open site. Depending on the type of open conductor being examined, LECIVA system parameters can be adjusted for detection. The primary advantages of LECIVA are that it causes virtually no irradiation damage and that it has the capability of being performed on commercial electron beam test systems as well as SEMs. Respondents to this licensing opportunity should be fully conversant with IC failure analysis. Selected respondents will be asked to submit a business plan for the commercialization of this technology. Interested companies should send a written response within fourteen days from the date of this publication to: Kay Carter, Sandia National Laboratories, Org. 4202, M/S 1380, P.O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1380, FAX (505)271-7867.

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