Environmental acceleration voltage

A Philips Environmental-SEM/EDX (Phihps XL30) was used to measure the morphology on untreated and plasma-treated powders. The powders were fixed on the sample holder by double conductive adhesive aluminum tape, and then gold-coated. Secondary electron images were recorded with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) using a 15 keV acceleration voltage. 

Although the potential that is applied to microelectronic devices is normally relatively limited (< 5V), very large electric fields can result because of the very small separation distances between conductors. When condensed water and ionie contamination are present between the lines (on the surface of separating insulators), these fields produce undesirable results by means of the three separate, but related mechanisms described next and shown schematically in Figure 4. For reference, these processes are often referred to as electrolytic. An extensive review of this subject was compiled by Steppan et al. [45], The voltage driver is normally externally applied, but another source is the semiconductor junctions that exist within an IC [17], Most environmentally induced failures in ICs that are observed in practice, and especially during accelerated aging, are caused by the applied electrical bias. 

---