JEOL has announced development of HAXIS, a new low-angle ion-milling scanning electron microscope, with sales beginning on October 5, 2026.
As advanced semiconductor device structures continue shrinking and becoming more complex, it has become difficult to contact and measure microscale circuits using nano-manipulators, tiny probes used to physically touch circuit points. The contact from probing can also affect the very thing being analyzed, creating a need for new failure analysis methods.
JEOL has conducted long-term research on passive voltage contrast (PVC) detection technology, a technique that reveals electrical anomalies in a chip by observing differences in brightness in an electron microscope image, and has established a stable, highly reproducible method for PVC observation through improvements in detectors and sample preparation techniques. HAXIS is JEOL's new semiconductor failure analysis platform that combines these technologies, achieving clear, repeatable PVC observation even in advanced semiconductors. By visually detecting electrical anomalies while minimizing the effects of processing damage and contamination, it allows analysts to efficiently identify where a defect is located and determine its cause. The system uses argon, an inert gas, for ion milling, which ensures stable surface quality and reduces running costs.
The quality of PVC observation depends heavily on the surface condition of the sample after delayering, the process of removing chip layers one at a time to reach the layer being analyzed. HAXIS uses a proprietary Low-Angle Ion Milling (LIM) delayering technique with argon ion beams, which creates a flat surface with minimal damage to the sample. This enables clear, reproducible PVC observation while preserving the chip's structure and electrical potential information, even in advanced devices.
Semiconductor failure analysis involves multiple steps, from first localizing a defect through physical analysis and finally root-cause investigation. As device complexity increases, shortening the time between detecting a failure and getting actionable results becomes increasingly important. HAXIS introduces a new approach to failure localization by integrating LIM delayering with scanning electron microscope imaging and PVC analysis in a single workflow. This combined approach enables fast, highly accurate identification of failure locations, supporting quick-turnaround-time (QTAT) failure analysis and speeding up the transition from detecting an electrical failure to physical analysis and root-cause identification.
The system's main features are clear PVC imaging, cost-effective argon processing, damage-free delayering using LIM, layer-by-layer LIM and PVC analysis, and contamination-free sample transfer.
