Failure Analysis at Electrical Contacts in Information Technologies: Part 1: Techniques

Inhalt:
Electrical contacts in information technology usually operate at low voltages and low currents to transmit electrical signals. In order to work reliably for long periods the contact has to show a constantly low contact resistance over the total life time. Experience shows that high contact resistances and thus failure of the electrical contacts is often related to a surface contamination or surface corrosion of the contact areas. Therefore, surface analysis is a useful tool for failure elucidation Several techniques are available, the most useful being Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (To-SIMS). The first part (this paper) focuses on the surface analytical techniques and their strengths and weaknesses in the context of failure analysis on contacts. The second talk will present several case studies in which the surface analytical techniques were successfully used to fix the root cause of contact failures.