randomdreams | (no subject)

Apparently my style of decapsulating integrated circuits is so different we don't know how to take pictures of the results that show what we want to see. We have damaged chips. When we etch the top off with nitric acid there are spots that won't etch because they're a mixture of metals, epoxy, and silicon. The way I remove the top doesn't leave those spots, so we have to compare the pictures to pictures of a good chip and even then the evidence for damage is subtle: lines that aren't quite straight, for instance. I may have to come up with some way of producing contrast. But, generally, it's extremely successful save for our lack of ability to electrically connect to the die anymore, and we can even manage that with our probe station.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've got some ideas. How paranoid are you about suggestions and proprietary information?

Not at all: this is entirely internal analysis, not even (in this case) of a competitor's product.

How about optical effects when photons interact with objects their own scale, like diffraction or interference? Two lines that ought to be parallel ought to be a dandy slit for diffraction of the right wavelengths. But since I'm not sure what feature sizes you're looking at -- you're examining the chips under a light microscope? -- I'm not sure if that's reasonable.