Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Fei-Chi Huang

Shean-Ren Horng

Wonder D Wang

An improved method for grinding a semiconductor chip to prepare it for scanning with SEM to view a defect includes the step of forming an electrically conductive coating on the top surface of the chip. The coating is made under a mask that produces a U shaped conductive pattern so that an electrical path is formed on the top surface of the chip between two corners of the pattern. An initial resistance measurement is made for this path and a known amount of the chip below the U shape is ground away and a second resistance measurement is made. From these measurements, a calculation is made that gives the resistance when the chip has been ground to a selected section line. The grinding operation then proceeds until this resistance is reached, and the usual practice of visually checking the chip during the grinding operation is avoided. The mask creates a point at the bottom of the U shape that points to the defect.

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Fei-Chi Huang