Nanoprobing

Nanoprobing is method of extracting device electrical parameters through the use of nanoscale tungsten wires, used primarily in the semiconductor industry.

The characterization of individual devices is instrumental to engineers and integrated circuit designers during initial product development and debug.

It is commonly utilized in device failure analysis laboratories to aid with yield enhancement, quality and reliability issues and customer returns.

Conductive AFM provides pico-amp resolution to identify and localize electrical failures such as shorts, opens, resistive contacts and leakage paths, enabling accurate probe positioning for current-voltage measurements.

Navigation of the probe tips in SEM based nanoprobers are typically controlled by precision piezoelectric manipulators.

A low magnification image of eight nanoprobes hovering over a device to be tested
A high magnification image of tungsten nanoprobes landed on a SRAM device.
Example of Id-Vd Measurements of an NMOS transistor. The plots are also known as "Family of Curves". Important parameters can be extracted, such as saturation current (Idsat) and leakage current (Ioff).
Example of Id-Vg Measurements of an NMOS transistor. The plots are also known as "Vt Curves", since it is often used to extract the threshold voltage (Vt), which defines an approximation of when a transistor is "on" and allows current to flow across the channel.