When the Chips Are Down, It's Microscopy to the Rescue
Integrated circuits are modern miracles, cramming tens of millions of transistors into thumbnail-size chips. But there’s a dark lining to this silver cloud — one that a terahertz microscopy technique under investigation by scientists at Okayama University, Osaka University and Riken research institute in Wako, Japan, could play a part in illuminating.
As with other manufactured goods, integrated circuits can have defects; for example, when a connecting trace breaks or a particle is...
Photonics Spectra, February 2005