There are four main principles for how you order the flow of your tests: Perform nondestructive tests before destructive tests. Many tests described in here involve cutting the device open to create sections; doing so will then make it impossi. There are four main principles for how you order the flow of your tests: Perform nondestructive tests before destructive tests. Many tests described in here involve cutting the device open to create sections; doing so will then make it impossible to collect detailed spectra, electroluminescence images, etc. Perform easy/inexpensive tests before exp. With a new device, it is normally desirable to have perhaps 3–8 characterized failure mechanisms, including how the device reacts to overstress and ESD, a few types of manufacturing flaws, maverick defects (e.g., epi defects), mechanical defects such as cracks or stacking faults, how the device fails due to normal aging, etc. For each of the most i. Every failure analysis will start off with a routine preliminary failure analysis being performed. This collects basic data using techniques that are nondestructive (at least at the die level, if not the header level). Once some basic capabilities are established, this is something technicians would usually be trained to perform. No Engineering or. Visual inspection includes general observation of the surface of the sample using a microscope. For a wafer or epitaxial layers, surface cracks, scratches, particles, roughness, and morphology are readily observable by an optical microscope. Thermal damage from electrical overstress (EOS) is also visible. In the failure analysis of optical devices,. Verifying failure is an important next step. For lasers inside a product, for example, for aligned lasers in a fiber optic transceiver, the eye pattern would be captured, and fiber coupled power and spectrum would be measured. For other systems, optical tests would be applied specific to the product. If those point to abnormal operation, the laser.