Sony CCD sensor, Epi-darkfield, Epi-DIC, and Epi-brightfield

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:16 pm

These are a few pictures of an old Sony CCD from an early digital camera. (Think it was 640x480). I've long been curious to examine a sensor with the microscope, so when I came across an "old" digital camera that was destined to be tossed out...

Recorded at 50x on sensor.
Olympus BHA, 20/0.46 Neo SPlan, 2.5x NFK photoeyepiece, BH2-UMA vertical illuminator, Epi-darkfield, Canon 50D DSLR.

Recorded at 25x on sensor.
Olympus BHA, 10/0.30 Neo SPlan, 2.5x NFK photoeyepiece, BH2-UMA vertical illuminator, Epi-DIC (NIC), Canon 50D DSLR.

Recorded at 250x on sensor.
Olympus BHA, 100/0.95 M SPlan, 2.5x NFK photoeyepiece, BH2-UMA vertical illuminator, Epi-brightfield, Canon 50D DSLR.

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:30 pm

Hello Charles
Congrats to capture the beauty of the "cold" technology
Francisco

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:45 pm

Hi Charlie--

Now that you can do your own at-home failure analysis you need to start tracing out the circuitry...Great shots.

--David

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:57 pm

David,

It's quite stunning the first time you look at something like this with a microscope and get some appreciation for what has been accomplished. And this is a 13 year old, 0.3Mp sensor! Hard for me to imagine what current "state-of-the-art" chips would look like.

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:02 pm

Hi Charlie--
You've captured a lot of real estate very artistically. When I showed it to my colleagues they suggested that all you needed was an anxious design engineer pacing around your scope as he awaited your diagnosis...
Actually, for modern ULSI chips, its almost all SEM though, you can't see anything close to state-of-the art optically....

Regards,

David

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:49 pm

Amazing what they can do, and all untouched by human hands. Pretty scary when you think about it. You did an excellent job with this.

thartl · Post by **thartl** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:44 pm

What do you figure that burnt round spot on the second image is?

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:24 am

What do you figure that burnt round spot on the second image is?

It's a gold electrical connection.

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:39 am

Charles,

Wow, beautiful.

The only kind of illumination that I have not seen from you is EPI-Fluorescent.

I have some part for EPI-DIC; hope to complete soon my set to do some test.

Rogelio