Neocera’s Development of Magnetic Field Microscopy
In 1997, Neocera Magma exclusively licensed University of Maryland patents in the technology of using SQUIDs to image magnetic fields in electronic devices. Neocera added several key patented innovations and introduced its Magma product line to the semiconductor industry for imaging shorts and package leakage defects. Giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors were added to the Magma product line to enable high-resolution defect localization on the die of semiconductor chips. Neocera Magma innovations continued to extend the fault isolation capability of magnetic field imaging to localize open defects. As a result, Magma magnetic field microscopes are uniquely capable of localizing all static electrical faults. The permeation of the magnetic field through all materials used in semiconductor device fabrication makes this the preferred technique for localizing buried defects.