Inspection of Packaged Integrated Circuits using Terahertz Radiation

A non-destructive, non-contact inspection system for packaged integrated circuits using terahertz (THz) radiation is tested. Our results show that we are able to reconstruct the internal structure of the IC, like the microelectronic chip and the interconnections. Due to the limitation of the system and the wavelength of THz radiation the fine bonding wires could not be detected. However, we show that the THz technology will be a valuable tool for the automatic online inspection of packaged integrated circuits.