2002 Photo Contest Winners

Congratulations to the 2002 winners!
 Category I: Color Images
1st Place:

Mark Kearns

LG Electronics
Submission Category: Optical Microscopy, Color

The multicolored bond pads in this photo were the result of sputter-coating the device with a thin layer of gold/palladium in preparation for SEM analysis. Appropriately, this integrated circuit handles all of the colors of the spectrum because it is a triple video output driver for a color television picture tube.

2nd Place:


Ang Chong Yong

Agilent Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

“Sea anemone”. An IC surface contaminated with
organic contaminant. This contaminant originates
from the black glob top material, spreading
across the surface.
3rd Place: 

Varaporn Suwanmethanond

Gemfire Corporation

Category: I Optical Microscopy

Bond pads lifted during wire bonding process. The image revealed the poor adhesion layer between the active material substrate and the gold pad.

 Category II: Black and White Images
1st Place:

Teresa Gutierrez

Sandia National Laboratories

Dual FIB cross-sections along the pin joint of a worn microgear. The left cross-section was cut along the axis of strongest force and shows more wear and debris accumulation. The right cross-section was cut along the axis of weakest force and reveals minimal wear.

2nd Place: 

Aprem Benjamin

FeinFocus USA, Inc.

X-ray image of a rose taken with a FeinFocus
FOX-160.25 Nanofocus X-ray System with
half a micron resolution.

 
3rd Place:

Hui Hui Kim

Singapore Science Park II

Submission Category: SEM micrograph

8 Layer Metal Interconnect Structure of Cu Dual Damascene Process – DSIC/FAR, Institute of Microelectronics
 Category III: False Color Images
1st Place:

Philip Strudwick

ERA Technology Ltd

Growth of copper-rich “teeth” through solder from copper header (red) to Transient Voltage Suppressor diode chip (blue) with particles of high silver content (green) moving in the opposite direction and the nickel barrier layer (purple) severely disrupted.

2nd Place:


Petar Ratchev

IMEC

First OIM map of a Cu to Cu wire bond cross-section.
High angle boundaries(>15°) separate grains.
Different colors represent different orientations in
respect to bond pad normal: blue in, red in and green in.
3rd Place:

James Shearer, William Orso

Matrix Semiconductor

SEM cross-sectional view of MatrixTM 3-D Memory. Eight write-once memory layers are stacked vertically. Bitlines are shown in blue, wordlines are shown in green. Image concept by S. Sivaram. X-section and etch by AMER labs. SEM by J Shearer. False colorization by W Orso.© Matrix Semiconductor, 2002