Semiconductor devices and methods are provided which facilitate performing physical failure analysis (PFA) testing from a backside of the devices. In at least one example, a device is provided that includes a semiconductor device layer including a plurality of diffusion regions. A first interconnection structure is disposed on a first side of the semiconductor device layer, and the first interconnection structure includes at least one electrical contact. A second interconnection structure is disposed on a second side of the semiconductor device layer, and the second interconnection structure includes a plurality of backside power rails. Each of the backside power rails at least partially overlaps a respective diffusion region of the plurality of diffusion regions and defines openings which expose portions of the respective diffusion region at the second side of the semiconductor device layer.

A method may include thinning a silicon wafer to a particular thickness. The particular thickness may be based on a passband frequency spectrum of an adjustable optical filter. The method may also include covering a surface of the silicon wafer with an optical coating. The optical coating may filter an optical signal and may be based on the passband frequency spectrum. The method may additionally include depositing a plurality of thermal tuning components on the coated silicon wafer. The plurality of thermal tuning components may adjust a passband frequency range of the adjustable optical filter by adjusting a temperature of the coated silicon wafer. The passband frequency range may be within the passband frequency spectrum. The method may include dividing the coated silicon wafer into a plurality of silicon wafer dies. Each silicon wafer die may include multiple thermal tuning components and may be the adjustable optical filter.

Representative implementations of techniques and devices are used to reduce or prevent conductive material diffusion into insulating or dielectric material of bonded substrates. Misaligned conductive structures can come into direct contact with a dielectric portion of the substrates due to overlap, especially while employing direct bonding techniques. A barrier interface that can inhibit the diffusion is disposed generally between the conductive material and the dielectric at the overlap.

Representative implementations of techniques and devices are used to reduce or prevent conductive material diffusion into insulating or dielectric material of bonded substrates. Misaligned conductive structures can come into direct contact with a dielectric portion of the substrates due to overlap, especially while employing direct bonding techniques. A barrier interface that can inhibit the diffusion is disposed generally between the conductive material and the dielectric at the overlap.

A method for aligning to a pattern on a wafer is disclosed. The method includes the steps of obtaining a first inline image from a first sample wafer, obtaining a first contour pattern of an alignment mark pattern from the first inline image, using the first contour pattern to generate a first synthetic image in black and white pixels, using the first synthetic image as a reference to recognize the alignment mark pattern on a tested wafer, and aligning to a tested pattern on the tested wafer according to a position of the alignment mark pattern on the tested wafer and a coordinate information.

An electrolytic processing jig configured to perform an electrolytic processing on a processing target substrate includes a base body having a flat plate shape; an electrode provided at the base body; three or more terminals provided at the base body, each having elasticity and configured to be brought into contact with a peripheral portion of the processing target substrate; and a detecting unit configured to electrically detect a contact of at least one of the terminals with the processing target substrate.

A property prediction system for a semiconductor element is provided. The property prediction system includes a memory unit, an input unit, a processing unit, and an arithmetic unit. The processing unit has a function of creating a learning data set from first data stored in the memory unit, a function of creating prediction data from second data supplied from the input unit, a function of converting qualitative data (a material name or a compositional formula) into quantitative data (the properties of an element and a composition), and a function of performing extraction or removal on the first data and the second data. The first data includes step lists of first to m-th semiconductor elements (m is an integer of 2 or more) and the properties of the first to m-th semiconductor elements. The second data includes a step list of an (m+1)-th semiconductor element. The arithmetic unit having a function of performing learning and inference of supervised learning performs learning on the basis of the learning data set and makes an inference of a semiconductor element from the prediction data.

The disclosure provides a wafer searching method and device. The method includes: obtaining a target wafer and a reference wafer; determining a first specific area in the target wafer, and obtaining a first significant distribution feature of the first specific area; determining a second specific area in the reference wafer, and obtaining a second significant distribution feature of the second specific area; in response to determining that the first significant distribution feature corresponds to the second significant distribution feature, estimating a fail pattern similarity between the first specific area and the second specific area; in response to determining that the fail pattern similarity is greater than a threshold, providing the reference wafer as a search result corresponding to the target wafer.

There is provided a technique that includes executing a process recipe for processing a substrate; and executing a correction recipe for checking a characteristic value of a supply valve installed at a process gas supply line, wherein the act of executing the correction recipe comprises: supplying an inert gas into the process gas supply line for a certain period of time in a state where an adjusting valve that is installed at an exhaust portion of a process furnace and adjusts an internal pressure of the process furnace is fully opened; detecting a pressure value in a supply pipe provided with the supply valve while supplying the inert gas into the process gas supply line in the state where the adjusting valve is fully opened; and calculating the characteristic value of the supply valve based on the detected pressure value.

An apparatus for inspecting a semiconductor substrate includes a rotatable base configured to support a substrate, and a nozzle arm includes a nozzle and a light monitoring device. The light monitoring device includes a laser transmitter and an array of light sensors arranged in the nozzle arm and facing the substrate. The light monitoring device is configured to transmit a laser pulse towards the substrate, wherein the laser pulse impinges on the substrate, receive a reflected laser pulse from the substrate, calculate whether one or more light sensors received the laser pulse, and calculate a distance between the light monitoring device and the substrate using the turnaround time for determining a process quality on the substrate.