Failure analysis

Failure analysis is the process of determining the cause of failure, collecting and analyzing data, and developing conclusions to eliminate the failure mechanism causing specific device or system failures. As such, it is an important discipline in many branches of manufacturing industry, such as the electronics industry, where it is a vital tool used in the development of new products and for the improvement of existing products.

Failure analysis equipment

This section lists the various types of equipment and techniques that are commonly used as part of the failure analysis process in the electronics industry. This list is not exhaustive.

• Surface acoustic microscope (SAM)
• Scanning electron microscope (SEM)
  • Electron beam induced current (EBIC) in SEM
  • Voltage contrast in SEM
  • Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) in SEM
  • Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) in SEM
• Transmission electron microscope (TEM)
• Photo emission microscope (PEM)
• Transmission line pulse spectroscopy (TLPS)
• Auger electron spectroscopy
• X-ray microscope
• Infra-red microscope
• Jet-etcher
• Fine ion beam etching (FIB)

See also

• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Failure rate
• Material science

Bibliography

• Martin, Perry L., Electronic Failure Analysis Handbook, McGraw-Hill Professional; 1st edition (February 28, 1999) ISBN 0070410445.