Imagine if our computers, cellular phones and other electronic gadgets cease to work due to failures in the circuits that run them. These failures in the minuscule wires that make up the semiconductor integrated circuits embedded in our electronic products must be detected in order to make sure that our prized gadgets function. To detect such failures, an effective technique for visualizing and analyzing circuits has been developed by a team of scientists from the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Physics (UP NIP), namely: Dr. Ceasar Saloma, Dr. Vincent Ricardo M. Daria and Ms. Jelda Jane C. Miranda. This microscope imaging technique entitled “Method for Generating High Contrast Images of Semiconductor Sites via One-Photon Optical Beam-induced Current (IP OBIC) Imaging and Confocal Reflectance Microscopy” was awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office last June 26, 2007.
Saloma, currently Dean of the College of Science of the University of the Philippines, is recipient of prestigious international awards for outstanding scientific work, among them the Galileo Galilei Award from the International Commission on Optics. Daria, Associate Professor at the UP-NIP is one of its most active researchers, and Miranda, who was part of its Experimental Optics Group now works for Intel Corporation. The US patent gives Saloma and his team an exclusive right to commercialize their invention in the United States without fear of infringement. The patent is effective for 20 years after the filing of application in December 09, 2006. For more details on the invention, you may check out the United States Patents and Trademarks Office website at http://patft.uspto.gov/.
The invention combines two existing imaging techniques called confocal reflectance microscopy and 1P-OBIC. It uses computer software to produce a high-contrast image mapping of the semiconductor and metal sites in an integrated circuit. The technique is a major breakthrough in the semiconductor industry. It is particularly useful in the manufacturing of microprocessors, integrated circuits and memories for computers, cellular phones and other electronic devices. Creating sharp visual images of semiconductor integrated circuits is important for failure analysis since one can track which part of the device would produce electrical current when hit by laser beam. The method facilitates accurate identification of semiconductor and metal sites in an integrated circuit. With this technique, defects in the circuit can be detected, thus ensuring quality control of such devices.
The main claims of the patent include a description of a technique that facilitates discrimination of these two types of materials in an integrated circuit. The claims also include a description of the optical layout for a generic confocal microscope that allows for simultaneous acquisition of reflectance confocal image and single-photon optical beam induced current (OBIC) image. Moreover, the patent includes an algorithm and software control for microscopic image acquisition for both confocal and OBIC image.
Applications of the patent extend to a fully integrated microscope system for failure analysis of integrated circuits by improved visualization and mapping of materials in a semiconductor device. The microscope extends to a system for measuring optical beam induced current of semiconductor materials. Further applications of the patent may include the construction of a general purpose Confocal Reflectance microscope system for viewing microscopic objects.
Just last March 16, 2007, another scientist from the National Institute of Physics in the University of the Philippines, Dr. Henry J. Ramos, was awarded a Taiwan patent for his invention entitled “Titanium Nitride Thin Formation on Metal Substrate by Chemical Vapor Deposition in a Magnetized Sheet Plasma Source.” The invention has a wide range of applications: cutting tools manufacturing, and the production of aerospace components, marine hardware, medical devices, and pharmaceutical equipment among others.
By Jennalyn S. Baraquio and Agnes A. Paculdar
