Update - Body of Knowledge (BOK) for Copper Wire Bonds

Copper wire bond technology developments continue to be a subject of technical interest to the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) NEPP (NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program) which funded this update. Based on this new research, additional copper bond wire vulnerabilities were found in the literature - Crevice corrosion, intrinsic degradation of palladium coated copper wire, congregation of palladium near ball bond interface leading to failure, residual aluminum pad metallization impact on device lifetimes, stitch cracking phenomena, package delamination's that have resulted in wire bond failures and device failure due to elemental sulfur. A search of the U.S.A. patent web site found 3 noteworthy patents on the following developments: claim of a certain IMC (Intermetallic Compound) thickness as a mitigation solution to chlorine corrosion; claim of using materials with different pHs to neutralize contaminants in a package containing copper wire bonds; and a discussion on ball shear test threshold values for different applications. In addition, an aerospace contractor of military hardware had a presentation on copper bond wires where it was reported that there was a parametric shift and noise susceptibility of devices with copper bond wires which affected legacy design performance. A review of silver bond wire (another emerging technology) technical papers found that an electromigration failure mechanism was evident in device applications that operate under high current conditions. More studies may need to be performed on a comprehensive basis. Research areas for consideration are suggested, however, these research and or qualification/standard test areas are not all inclusive and should not be construed as the element (s) that delivers any potential copper wire bond solution. A false sense of security may occur, whenever there is a reliance on passing any particular qualification, standard, or test protocol

Estudi de la desencapsulació electrónica

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Química, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2014-2015, Tutors: Jordi Bonet i Ruiz i Olga Perarnau i MeliàThis project has been carried out at DENSO Barcelona and it is focused on the study of electronic components decapsulation by means of automatic disassembling system using chemical products. DENSO is a leading supplier of advanced automotive technology, systems and components for major automakers. All electronic components are encapsulated in mold to protect internal structure of external damages compound. The automatic decapsulation system takes an integrated circuit encapsulated in mold compound and removes it using a user-specified chemical solution. The main objective of this processing at automotive industry consists in detect and seen semiconductor failure analysis. In the automatic decap user can modify the etch parameters (etching temperature, etching time, acid mixture…) depending sample measures and material composition. The target of this project is to make experimental tests with different electronic components to create an optimal decapsulation handbook, for in the future only seeing the component user will be able to select the correct etching program, and study the effect of acids over bonding wires(connections between chip surfaces and terminals in a component) when the material used as copper. During the study engineer will understand semiconductors materials fabrication, internal packaging structure, chemicals usage for decapsulation and rinse, safety operations in the laboratory and analysis techniques. Trial and error method will be used to establish the best etching conditions. A total of 10 decapsulation programs are created for different electronic components (integrated circuits and transistors) during this project. For the study of acids effects in copper material, the automatic decapsulation machine presents, Bias Voltage (method create to protect copper). Different voltages will be tested in this project in order to establish a good value for in the future protect the copper wires. Satisfactory results are obtained and an optimal voltage can be established

Semiconductor Packaging

In semiconductor manufacturing, understanding how various materials behave and interact is critical to making a reliable and robust semiconductor package. Semiconductor Packaging: Materials Interaction and Reliability provides a fundamental understanding of the underlying physical properties of the materials used in a semiconductor package. By tying together the disparate elements essential to a semiconductor package, the authors show how all the parts fit and work together to provide durable protection for the integrated circuit chip within as well as a means for the chip to communicate with the outside world. The text also covers packaging materials for MEMS, solar technology, and LEDs and explores future trends in semiconductor packages

Semiconductor Packaging

In semiconductor manufacturing, understanding how various materials behave and interact is critical to making a reliable and robust semiconductor package. Semiconductor Packaging: Materials Interaction and Reliability provides a fundamental understanding of the underlying physical properties of the materials used in a semiconductor package. By tying together the disparate elements essential to a semiconductor package, the authors show how all the parts fit and work together to provide durable protection for the integrated circuit chip within as well as a means for the chip to communicate with the outside world. The text also covers packaging materials for MEMS, solar technology, and LEDs and explores future trends in semiconductor packages

Forensic applications of atomic force microscopy

The first project undertaken was to develop a currently non-existent forensic technique -- data recovery from damaged SIM cards. SIM cards hold data valuable to a forensic investigator within non-volatile EEPROM/flash memory arrays. This data has been proven to be able to withstand temperatures up to 500°C, surviving such scenarios as house fires or criminal evidence disposal. A successful forensically-sound sample extraction, mounting and backside processing methodology was developed to expose the underside of a microcontroller circuit's floating gate transistor tunnel oxide, allowing probing via AFM-based electrical scanning probe techniques. Scanning Kelvin probe microscopy has thus far proved capable of detecting the presence of stored charge within the floating gates beneath the thin tunnel oxide layer, to the point of generating statistical distributions reflecting the threshold voltage states of the transistors. The second project covered the novel forensic application of AFM as a complimentary technique to SEM examination of quartz grain surface textures. The analysis and interpretation of soil/sediment samples can provide indications of their provenance, and enable exclusionary comparisons to be made between samples pertinent to a forensic investigation. Multiple grains from four distinct sample sets were examined with the AFM, and various statistical figures of merit were derived. Canonical discriminant analysis was used to assess the discriminatory abilities of these statistical variables to better characterise the use of AFM results for grain classification. The final functions correctly classified 65.3% of original grouped cases, with the first 3 discriminant functions used in the analysis (Wilks' Lambda=0.336, p=0.000<0.01). This degree of discrimination shows a great deal of promise for the AFM as a quantitative corroborative technique to traditional SEM grain surface examination

Dynamic Laser Fault Injection Aided by Quiescent Photon Emissions in Embedded Microcontrollers: Apparatus, Methodology and Attacks

Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming more integrated in our daily life with the increasing number of embedded electronic devices interacting together. These electronic devices are often controlled by a Micro-Controller Unit (MCU). As an example, it is estimated that today’s well-equipped automobile uses more than 50 MCUs. Some MCUs contain cryptographic co-processors to enhance the security of the exchanged and stored data with a common belief that the data is secured and safe. However many MCUs have been shown to be vulnerable to Fault Injection (FI) attacks. These attacks can reveal shared secrets, firmware, and other confidential information. In addition, this extracted information obtained by attacks can lead to identification of new vulnerabilities which may scale to attacks on many devices. In general, FI on MCUs corrupt data or corrupt instructions. Although it is assumed that only authorized personnel with access to cryptographic secrets will gain access to confidential information in MCUs, attackers in specialized labs nowadays may have access to high-tech equipment which could be used to attack these MCUs. Laser Fault Injection (LFI) is gaining more of a reputation for its ability to inject local faults rather than global ones due to its precision, thus providing a greater risk of breaking security in many devices. Although publications have generally discussed the topic of security of MCUs, attack techniques are diverse and published LFI provides few and superficial details about the used experimental setup and methodology. Furthermore, limited research has examined the combination of both LFI and Photo-Emission Microscopy (PEM), direct modification of instructions using the LFI, control of embedded processor resets using LFI, and countermeasures which simultaneously thwart other aspects including decapsulation and reverse engineering (RE). This thesis contributes to the study of the MCUs’ security by analyzing their susceptibility to LFI attacks and PEM. The proposed research aims to build a LFI bench from scratch allowing maximum control of laser parameters. In addition, a methodology for analysis of the Device Under Attack (DUA) in preparation for LFI is proposed, including frontside/backside decapsulation methods, and visualization of the structure of the DUA. Analysis of attack viability of different targets on the DUA, including One-Time Programmable (OTP) memory, Flash memory and Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) was performed. A realistic attack of a cryptographic algorithm, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) using LFI was conducted. On the other hand, countermeasures to the proposed attack techniques, including decapsulation/RE, LFI and PEM, were discussed. This dissertation provides a summary for the necessary background and experimental setup to study the possibility of LFI and PEM in different DUAs of two different technologies, specifically PIC16F687 and ARM Cortex-M0 LPC1114FN28102. Attacks performed on on-chip peripherals such as Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) and debug circuity reveal new vulnerabilities. This research is important for understanding attacks in order to design countermeasures for securing future hardware

Fifteenth Space Simulation Conference: Support the Highway to Space Through Testing

The Institute of Environmental Sciences Fifteenth Space Simulation Conference, Support the Highway to Space Through Testing, provided participants a forum to acquire and exchange information on the state-of-the-art in space simulation, test technology, thermal simulation and protection, contamination, and techniques of test measurements

Reliability Abstracts and Technical Reviews January-December 1969

No abstract availabl