SEMICAPS began operations in 1989 when lecturers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) founded the holding company to commercialise products based on technologies that were developed at the Centre for Integrated Circuit Failure Analysis and Reliability (CICFAR).
Back then, this Singapore high technology company specialised in electron, ion, photon, and X-ray beam technologies and associated techniques for the failure analysis (FA) of semiconductor devices. We commercialised the image capture and enhancement accessory for a scanning electron microscope and sold about 400 units of these worldwide.
Our technical staff have strong backgrounds in these technologies, computer hardware and software; with an in-depth appreciation of the application requirements of the industry. Currently we have about 30 staff located in Singapore, Taiwan and USA.
Presently, SEMICAPS is the world’s leading company in the area of high resolution infra-red laser scanning microscopes. These microscopes are used by advanced semiconductor companies for: a) design-debug analysis of new integrated circuits (ICs), b) yield improvement analysis for early semiconductor wafers, and c) failure analysis of customer returns.
Our key advantages over our competitors includes: a) the ability of our microscopes to resolve linewidths below 100 nm, thereby producing the highest resolution images, and b) the ability of our analytical wafer prober (SEMICAPS 5000) to allow hard-docking and direct-probing with standard commercial testing equipment; catering for probe-cards of over 10,000 pins and testing speeds of more than 1 Gbps.
The company’s R&D work has resulted in the grant of 9 patents. For their significant achievements the SEMICAPS team has been awarded the President’s Technology Award in 2009.
The SEMICAPS Group consists of: 1) SEMICAPS Corporation Pte Ltd – the holding company, 2) SEMICAPS Pte Ltd – our R&D company which designs and manufactures our equipment, and 3) Inscope Labs Pte Ltd – a service laboratory that exploits the equipment developed by SEMICAPS.
The design and manufacture of semiconductor failure localisation microscopes is our core business. We sell these internationally to large customers like Samsung, Qualcomm, AMD, NXP, GlobalFoundries, Micron, Intel, UMC and TSMC. Half the top 20 semiconductor companies have bought our machines.
Our subsidiary, Inscope Labs also provides a wide range of laboratory services using our equipment.
SEMICAPS has its R&D, manufacturing and HQ in Singapore. We expect to become a more widely accepted Semiconductor tool internationally as the technology node shrinks.
SEMICAPS is privately owned by individuals.
Our Business
SEMICAPS designs, manufactures and markets innovative fault localization microscopes which are used by the top semiconductor companies. Customers use these equipment for their design-debug and yield analysis work. These world leading instruments help users to, efficiently and quickly, ramp up the yield of their latest chip designs by analyzing and locating faults in their engineering samples and early production runs.
Our laser scan microscope has already been qualified and is being used by a large manufacturer for their 14 nm products. Presently, our optics for NIR laser scanning is able to achieve the best resolution of below 100 nm linewidth. Further, Global Foundries is using our wafer probe platform to accelerate their wafer yield analysis, saving them weeks per analysis cycle by avoiding the need to sort, dice and package the products before analysis. These direct-docked, direct-probe analytical wafer probers allow users to test their wafers at over 1 Gbps, while using a standard commercial probe card with over 5000 pins.
Our technical staff has strong backgrounds in semiconductor failure analysis, microscopy and the use of lasers as well as computer hardware and software. Working closely with customers, we also have an in-depth appreciation of the application requirements of the industry. SEMICAPS also work closely with the National University of Singapore to develop new fundamental technologies. Currently, we have about 30 staff located in Singapore, Taiwan and USA. The SEMICAPS team has been awarded the President’s Technology Award in 2009, Singapore’s highest award for science and technology. The company also has been granted 9 patents.
Equipment
Presently, our main products include the:
a. Laser Timing Probe (LTP) – An instrument which allows the waveform at any selected point inside a semiconductor device or IC to be measured without a physical probe, by using a laser;
b. Scanning Optical Microscope (SOM) System – A multi-laser scanning optical microscope system for the active localization of integrated circuit defects using static power alteration and dynamic tester-based techniques;
c. Photon Emission Microscope (PEM) System – A highly sensitive passive fault localization system for the localization of integrated circuit defects using panchromatic imaging and spectroscopy.
Our Founder
Professor Jacob CH Phang graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1975 and obtained his PhD from the same university in 1979, working on scanning electron microscopy (SEM). He then joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) as an academic staff.
Semiconductor failure analysis was Jacob’s primary interest in his work spanning over 30 years. This started with his PhD work on SEM but extended to areas like scanning electron acoustic microscopy, electron-beam-induced current technology and cathodoluminescence. In the 1990s, Jacob became interested in work on using photon emission microscopy and laser scanning microscopy for semiconductor fault localization and defect characterization.
Besides his teaching and supervision duties at NUS, Jacob is a founding member of the Centre for Integrated Circuit Failure Analysis and Reliability (CICFAR). He was also actively involved in an advance SIL project which aimed to design a solid immersion lens for backside semiconductor analysis with a spot size below 100 nm.
Life as a technopreneur started for Jacob when he founded SEMICAPS in 1988 with colleagues to commercialize an image capture, enhancement and storage system for the SEM. This allowed to SEM users back then to store their SEM images digitally instead of using Polaroid photographs. Later, interest shifted to semiconductor fault localization where Jacob and his collaborators implemented soft defect localization and a pulsed laser technique on their laser scanning microscopes. In 2008, together with the SEMICAPS team, laser waveform probe equipment with an aplanatic SIL was developed. The use of this machine was successfully proven for the 22 nm node by a large customer. Following this, the pioneering direct-dock analytical wafer prober was created. This facilitates dynamic laser analysis of dies on a wafer, avoiding the need to sort and package the dies before analysis. A leading foundry was able to use this machine to land more than 5000 pins using a normal commercial probe card.
Besides his teaching, research and business activities, Jacob was also involved in university administration at NUS. Worthy of mention among these is an organization he helped form – NUS Enterprise. NUS Enterprise was set up to change student’s mindset towards entrepreneurship; with Jacob at the helm to impart his experience from SEMICAPS. Besides looking after a business incubator, a technology management office, a seed fund, and other activities, Jacob started an attachment program for selected students to intern at technology companies and start-ups in overseas regions like the Silicon Valley.
One of them, KF Tay, the founder of brand consultancy Tangible, wrote of Jacob: “I also remember him always asking “what’s next?”… to us, it was a start-up experience-cum-Stanford thing, but to him, it was always about Big Hairy Audacious Goals….” He added: “… I suppose he’d be glad to know he’s succeeded in his work to create a generation of entrepreneurial-minded people who is constantly finding ways to make ‘dents in the universe’.
“He never took status quo as satisfactory and constantly challenged it to see how it can be better. Maybe it’s something everyone is used to now, but back in 2002, when the entrepreneurial mindset was new, it was liberating to know we can change anything we don’t like.”
Jacob also served as the Section Chairman, IEEE Singapore from 1986 to 1987 and was among the founding committee members of IPFA in 1987.
In 2002, Jacob was bestowed the title of “Chevalier” in the order of “Palmes Academiques”. This honorary conferment, rarely given to foreign scholars by the French government, is in recognition of Jacob’s sustained efforts in the improvement of France-Singapore relations in the area of education and research. Later in 2009 Jacob was awarded the President’s Technology Award, by Singapore in recognition of his team’s efforts at NUS and SEMICAPS for “their outstanding contributions to the research, development and commercialization of scanning optical microscope systems for design debug and failure analysis of advanced integrated circuits”.
Selected examples of papers and patents authored by Jacob are listed below.
PAPERS
JCH Phang, and H Ahmed. “Line profiles in thick electron resist layers and proximity effect correction.” Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology 16, no. 6 (1979): 1754-1758.
JCH Phang, and H Ahmed. “Experimental and theoretical investigations of parameters controlling line profiles in electron-beam lithography.” IEE Proceedings I (Solid-State and Electron Devices) 128, no. 1 (1981): 1-8.
JCH Phang, DSH Chan, and JR Phillips. “Accurate analytical method for the extraction of solar cell model parameters.” Electronics Letters 20, no. 10 (1984): 406-408.
DSH Chan, JR Phillips, and JCH Phang. “A comparative study of extraction methods for solar cell model parameters.” Solid-State Electronics 29, no. 3 (1986): 329-337.
DSH Chan and JCH Phang. “Analytical methods for the extraction of solar-cell single-and double-diode model parameters from IV characteristics.” IEEE Transactions on Electron devices 34, no. 2 (1987): 286-293.
JCH Phang, DSH Chan, SL Tan, WB Len, KH Yim, LS Koh, CM Chua, and LJ Balk. “A review of near infrared photon emission microscopy and spectroscopy.” In Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits, 2005. IPFA 2005., pp. 275-281. IEEE, 2005.
GBM Fiege, V Feige, JCH Phang, M Maywald, S Gorlich, and LJ Balk. “Failure analysis of integrated devices by scanning thermal microscopy (SThM).” Microelectronics Reliability 38, no. 6-8 (1998): 957-961.
DSH Chan, Vincent KS Ong, and JCH Phang. “A direct method for the extraction of diffusion length and surface recombination velocity from an EBIC line scan: Planar junction configuration.” IEEE transactions on electron devices 42, no. 5 (1995): 963-968.
JCH Phang, DSH Chan, M. Palaniappan, JM Chin, B Davis, M Bruce, J Wilcox et al. “A review of laser induced techniques for microelectronic failure analysis.” In Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits. IPFA 2004 (IEEE Cat. No. 04TH8743), pp. 255-261. IEEE, 2004.
JCH Phang, KL Pey, and DSH Chan. “A simulation model for cathodoluminescence in the scanning electron microscope.” IEEE transactions on electron devices 39, no. 4 (1992): 782-791.
SH Goh, CJR Sheppard, ACT Quah, CM Chua, LS Koh, and JCH Phang. “Design considerations for refractive solid immersion lens: Application to subsurface integrated circuit fault localization using laser induced techniques.” Review of Scientific Instruments 80, no. 1 (2009): 013703.
R Chen, K Agarwal, Colin JR Sheppard, JCH Phang, and X Chen. “A complete and computationally efficient numerical model of aplanatic solid immersion lens scanning microscope.” Optics Express 21, no. 12 (2013): 14316-14330.
L Hu, R Chen, K Agarwal, Colin JR Sheppard, JCH Phang, and X Chen. “Dyadic Green’s function for aplanatic solid immersion lens based sub-surface microscopy.” Optics Express 19, no. 20 (2011): 19280-19295.
JM Chin, JCH Phang, DSH Chan, CE Soh, and G Gilfeather. “Single contact optical beam induced currents (SCOBIC)-a new failure analysis technique.” In 2000 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings. 38th Annual (Cat. No. 00CH37059), pp. 420-424. IEEE, 2000.
WB Len, YY Liu, JCH Phang, and DSH Chan. “Near IR continuous wavelength spectroscopy of photon emissions from semiconductor devices.” In INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR TESTING AND FAILURE ANALYSIS, pp. 311-316. ASM International; 1998, 2003.
R Chen, K Agarwal, Y Zhong, Colin JR Sheppard, JCH Phang, and X Chen. “Complete modeling of subsurface microscopy system based on aplanatic solid immersion lens.” JOSA A 29, no. 11 (2012): 2350-2359.
YY Liu, JM Tao, DSH Chan, JCH Phang, and WK Chim. “A new spectroscopic photon emission microscope system for semiconductor device analysis.” In Proceedings of 5th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits, pp. 60-65. IEEE, 1995.
LS Koh, H Marks, LK Ross, CM Chua, and JCH Phang. “Laser timing probe with frequency mapping for locating signal maxima.” In 35th International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis, pp. 33-37. 2009.
L Meng, D Nagalingam, CS Bhatia, AG Street, and JCH Phang. “Distinguishing morphological and electrical defects in polycrystalline silicon solar cells using scanning electron acoustic microscopy and electron beam induced current.” Solar energy materials and solar cells 95, no. 9 (2011): 2632-2637.
R Chen, K Agarwal, Colin JR Sheppard, JCH Phang, and X Chen. “Resolution of aplanatic solid immersion lens based microscopy.” JOSA A 29, no. 6 (2012): 1059-1070.
KM Lim, GCF Lee, Colin JR Sheppard, JCH Phang, CL Wong, and X Chen. “Effect of polarization on a solid immersion lens of arbitrary thickness.” JOSA A 28, no. 5 (2011): 903-911.
S Kolachina, JCH Phang, and DSH Chan. “Single contact electron beam induced currents (SCEBIC) in semiconductor junctions. Part I: Quantitative verification of SCEBIC model.” Solid-State Electronics 42, no. 6 (1998): 957-962.
LJ Balk, R Heiderhoff, JCH Phang, and C Thomas. “Characterization of electronic materials and devices by scanning near-field microscopy.” Applied Physics A 87, no. 3 (2007): 443-449.
SH Goh, ACT Quah, CJR Sheppard, CM Chua, LS Koh, and JCH Phang. “Effect of refractive solid immersion lens parameters on the enhancement of laser induced fault localization techniques.” In 2008 15th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits, pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2008.
ACT Quah, SH Goh, VK Ravikumar, SL Phoa, V Narang, JM Chin, CM Chua, and JCH Phang. “Combining refractive solid immersion lens and pulsed laser induced techniques for effective defect localization on microprocessors.” In Proc. 34th International Symposium for Testing & Failure Analysis. 2008.
ACT Quah, JCH Phang, LS Koh, SH Tan, and CM Chua. “Enhanced detection sensitivity with pulsed laser digital signal integration algorithm.” In INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR TESTING AND FAILURE ANALYSIS, vol. 32, p. 234. ASM International; 1998, 2006.
DSH Chan, JCH Phang, WK Chim, YY Liu, and JM Tao. “Design and performance of a new spectroscopic photon emission microscope system for the physical analysis of semiconductor devices.” Review of scientific instruments 67, no. 7 (1996): 2576-2583.
PATENTS
DSH Chan, Kin Leong, and JCH Phang. “Double reflection cathodoluminescence detector with extremely high discrimination against backscattered electrons.” U.S. Patent 5,468,967, issued November 21, 1995.
WK Chim, DSH Chan, JCH Phang, JM Tao, and YY Liu. “Integrated emission microscope for panchromatic imaging, continuous wavelength spectroscopy and selective area spectroscopic mapping.” U.S. Patent 5,724,131, issued March 3, 1998.
YY Liu, DSH Chan, and JCH Phang. “Rotational stage for high speed, large area scanning in focused beam systems.” U.S. Patent 6,911,656, issued June 28, 2005.
A Khursheed, JCH Phang, and JTL Thong. “Portable high resolution scanning electron microscope column using permanent magnet electron lenses.” U.S. Patent 6,320,194, issued November 20, 2001.
JM Chin, S Kolachina, JCH Phang, and DSH Chan. “Pulsed single contact optical beam induced current analysis of integrated circuits.” U.S. Patent 6,556,029, issued April 29, 2003.