(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Defective computer chips are the bane of the semiconductor industry. Even a seemingly minor flaw in a chip packed with billions of electrical connections might cause a critical operation in a computer or other sensitive electronic device to fail.

By modifying an existing technique for identifying defects, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method that can simultaneously locate individual electrical flaws in multiple microcircuits on the same chip. Because the technique relies on a relatively inexpensive and common imaging tool, an atomic force microscope (AFM), it may provide a new way to test the interconnected wiring of computer chips in the factory.

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