Using ICP-MS to Measure Elemental Compositions in Drug Products
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When Innovation Meets Failure Analysis
There is no doubt that our current world is driven by science and innovation. With rapid advancements in automated entertainment, infrastructure, transportation, medical devices, and more, electronics have come to play an important role in our day-to-day lives. However, delivering these improvements requires solving many engineering challenges. Electronic systems are becoming more complex and complicated to troubleshoot, the costs of failures are growing in our digitally dependent society, and comprehensive root-cause failure analysis is increasingly difficult. In our interconnected and changing world, it is important to know how to respond to these potential failures. EAG is here to help!
The Steps We Take:
Failures occur at all points in a product’s life cycle. From first silicon to devices that have been in operation for over ten years, EAG is prepared to diagnose the cause of any and all failures.
As a first step, EAG begins all root cause failure analyses by building a thorough understanding of the background and circumstances of the failure at hand.
Based on our findings, we proceed to either a comprehensive investigation, or characterization of specific data points to quickly prove or disprove a hypothesis. We leverage our multidisciplinary expertise during these detailed investigations to further understand failure modes at both the device and system level.
EAG employs a breadth of isolation tools and techniques to pinpoint the physical locations of failures. Some examples of these tools and techniques are:
- Backside sample preparation and analysis
- Laser Signal Injection Microscopy (XIVA, OBIRCH, lock-in mode, 1340 nm, 1064 nm)
- Infrared (IR) Thermography (pulse modulation mode, hot spot, temperature map)
- Light Emission Microscopy (LEM) or EMMI (InGaAs, Deep Depletion CCD)
- Microprobing and picoprobing
- FIB circuit edit and probe points
- Dopant profiling (AFP SCM)
Using these techniques, we provide our customers with detailed reports listing potential root causes which explain the observed physical failures. With this understanding of cause and effect, EAG then works with the customer to make informed decisions and recommendations on fixes, quality screening, recalls, and product revisions. When corrective action is necessary, EAG also assists with design of experiment (DoE) to ensure that the revised products are robust and fault tolerant.
Whether it be aerospace sensors, biomedical devices, infotainment, or even gaming systems, EAG has the tools, techniques, and expertise to solve your electronic failure problems.
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