Laser stimulation with advanced Externally Induced Voltage Alterations (XIVA) sensing yields ability to rapidly locate and analyze a range of failures including junction defects, shorts, and opens.

XIVA encompasses and extends all of the prior techniques of OBIC, LIVA, SEI, and TIVA. This new technique offers a number of advantages:

• Encompasses all Laser Scanning Microscopy (LSM) failure analysis techniques into a single package.
• Allows constant voltage or constant current bias of test devices.
  The XIVA output is a reflected light image of the die with an overlay of voltage alteration sites.
  

Focusing the laser concentrates the heating and carrier generation to a localized spot, which changes the local device electrical properties. Only two types of changes take place, a resistance change or an induced current. Two stimulations with two changes allow four basic effects as described in the table below:

OBIC and LIVA tend to show all of the junctions. A good part is also imaged and then subtracted from the bad device image. The defects are found in the differences.

TIVA will image the current path and won't need a good part for reference if the good part has no leakage. TIVA has been the more successful technique.

SEI has been the least used technique.

Device bias at low voltage (0.5V) is not a problem.