An
improved method, apparatus, and control / guiding
software for localizing, characterizing, and correcting defects in integrated circuits, particularly open or resistive contact / via defects and
metal bridging defects, using FIB technology. An apparatus for identifying an abnormal discontinuity in a contact / via in an
integrated circuit comprising a
focused ion beam system to scan the
ion beam over the contact / via to do remove or deposit via material, a
detector to collect a secondary particle
signal from the contact / via material that gets removed, a sub-
system for storing the secondary particle
signal from the contact / via in time as well as x-y scan position, a sub-
system for correlating secondary particle signals and identifying discontinuities in the correlated secondary particle signals, a sub-system for optimizing the display of the abnormal discontinuity; and a computer to implement
software aspects of the system.