Electrical and topological characterization of interconnect open defects

A technique that extracts the electrical and the topological parameters of open defects in process monitor lines is presented. The procedure is based on time domain measurements performed at both endpoints of the line. The location as well as the resistive value of the open defect is obtained from the attenuation and phase shift measurements. The defect-free characteristic impedance of the line and its propagation constant are considered to be unknowns and their values are obtained from the measurements avoiding, thus, possible errors due to process parameter variations. The required experimental set-up to perform the characterization measures and a simple graphical procedure to determine the defect and line parameters are presented.