EOS Vs. ESD Manual - EESemi.com Forum Archives

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EOS Vs. ESD Manual

Distinguishing between ESD and EOS failures has always been of interest to failure analysts. Sometimes it is easy to do - gross metallization burn-outs will always be attributed to EOS, while a point rupture at the interface between an input thin-film resistor and a metal line is always indicatve of ESD damage. But what if the attributes exhibited by the device falls in between those of EOS and ESD?

In the archived forum thread below, the original poster is looking for an off-the-shelf manual showcasing ESD vs. EOS photos. Since ESD and EOS failure attributes depend not only on the nature of the electrical stress, but also on the circuit design, die lay-out, and fab process used, it would be difficult (if not impossible) to come up with a catch-all manual that will tell one how to distinguish between EOS and ESD failures. A more practical approach therefore is to generate an in-house compilation of EOS/ESD photos instead involving your own devices. This compilation must be generated by a highly-controlled process for simulating the EOS/ESD failures.

Posted by Mike_balbuena: Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:18 am Post subject: EOS and ESD Manual

Do you have a reference manual pictures and case files on the difference of EOS from ESD failures? If you have, can you give me the manual’s name so we can buy it.

Thanks,
Mike B.

Posted by Anti Static: Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject:

Hi Mike,

We've also tried looking for a manual on this issue (determining the real root cause of device failure; ESD or EOS) but up to now we cannot find a single source manual that clearly explain this.

During a previous ESD forum, one recommendation from the speaker is to obtain samples of good units, zapped intentionally, decap for analysis.

The defect signature for every type of ESD event and for every leads of the unit, and for different voltage level, can be compiled as a baseline reference.

Once an ESD failure is suspected, we can always use the above compilation for our reference.

Posted by FARel Engr: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:13 am Post subject:

Hi guys,

I'd venture to say that a general, off-the-shelf manual that distinguishes between ESD and EOS damage can not be made, since the failure attributes they generate are also affected by the circuit design, the device lay-out, the fab process used, the assy/test/handling processes employed, etc.

However, you might be able generate such an ESD/EOS look-up table on a per-product or per-product family basis within your company, as Anti-Static has hinted, which means that this will have to be internally generated by your staff. Such information would be very useful to include if you have an FA database.

Good luck!

FARel Engr

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