Defect type identification using hyper-extracting-field

Abstract

One embodiment disclosed relates to a method for electron beam inspection of a semiconductor circuit to identify a defect path using a hyper-extracting field. The method includes scanning the semiconductor circuit with a primary electron beam, applying a hyper-extracting field sufficient to achieve a junction breakdown, detecting intensities of electrons hyper-extracted from the semiconductor circuit during the scanning, and identifying a defect path from the hyper-extracted intensities. Another embodiment disclosed relates to a method that includes identifying both a normally extracting voltage contrast defect and a normally retarding voltage contrast defect by using the hyper-extracting field. Another embodiment disclosed relates to an apparatus for electron beam inspection of a semiconductor circuit to identify a defect path using a hyper-extracting field. Another embodiment disclosed relates to an apparatus for identifying both a normally extracting voltage contrast defect and a normally retarding voltage contrast defect by using the hyper-extracting field.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.