Cross-Sectional Mapping Analysis of IC Cards

User Benefits

- The EPMA can be used for a wide range of applications including defect analysis, quality improvement, and research and development of IC cards. - The EPMA enables the visualization of IC chip wiring patterns and their compositional elements.

Introduction

IC cards are used in industries such as finance, transportation, and services. There are two types of IC card—contact type cards such as credit cards, ETC cards, and non-contact type cards such as those used as IC transit cards. An IC (integrated circuit) is a device consisting of transistors wired together with metal interconnect. As the ICs have become smaller, the width and thickness of the wires have been shrunk to several 100 nm. On the other hand, the total wire length now exceeds several 100 m. If any of these wires are broken or make poor contact, the IC will not function. In addition, if a crack or the like occurs during mounting of the board, it will lead to failure. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the reliability and structure of materials and to examine the manufacturing process. This paper introduces an example of mapping analysis of a cross-section of a contact type IC card and the wiring pattern of the IC chip using a Shimadzu EPMA-8050G (EPMA^TM) electron probe microanalyzer.

January 6, 2022 GMT