Method for electrically examining electronic components of an integrated circuit

Abstract

A method is provided for electrically examining electronic components of an integrated circuit including a target region to be examined in which electronic components with contact points are located and further including a remaining, non-target region. The method includes performing an examination with a combined SEM/AFM nanoprobe. The examination includes imaging at least a portion of the non-target region with the scanning electron microscope part of the SEM/AFM nanoprobe in a first step, imaging at least a portion of the target region only with the atomic force microscope part of the SEM/AFM nanoprobe in a subsequent step, and recording, in a further subsequent step, current/voltage curves as characteristic electrical curves at the contact points with the nanoprobe, or performing a conductive AFM technique.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.