IEEE's "The Art of Failure Analysis" 2018, 2012
- RF Cafe Cool Pic -

Since 2008, IEEE's International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits (IFPA) has on occasion held an "Art of Failure Analysis" photo contest. Familiar shapes and patterns occur regularly in nature at the macro level that can be seen and recognized by almost anyone; e.g., the Nautilus spiral, the Fibonacci series in plant life, and fractal structures. It takes a high power optical microscope or even a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to see those sights in the realm of the very small. Sometimes, though, the images are downright bazaar and look eerily familiar.

Back in 2010 I posted the winners for that year's contest (see below), and it appears there have not been any others since then until in 2018, and none for 2019 or 2020. Click on the image to the upper left to visit the IEEE webpage. 

Art of Failure Analysis 2012 (originally posted August 14, 2020)

The first-place winner from the 2012 "Art of Failure Analysis" is a good example. Titled, "People on the Beach," this SEM image by Infineon's Lim Saw Sing. It is an exposed polyimide surface that was etched by reactive ions. Is that cool or what?

"The Hope Terrace" is another familiar sight. It looks just like a formation of tiered cliffs with wind-blown snow or sand upon them. "Silver Leaves" appears to be an infrared type image of a cluster of plants. We have seen a lot plant-like SEM images. "Big Nose" reminds me of Mr. Bill yelling "Oh, nooo...." while pleading for mercy from Sluggo. "Lunar Eclipse" looks more to me like an annular solar eclipse, but I suppose artistic license permits the photographer to name it anything he wants.

Here are the winners for 2011, 2010, 2009, and the first one in 2008.

The following thumbnail images are from the IEEE's IFA 2012 website. Click on image for larger version.

People on the Beach Lim Saw Sing	The Hope Terrace Tan Lee Koon	Silver Leaves Amy Ng & Angelina Lau
Big Nose Wu Xing & Pey Kin Leong	Fist of Victory Khoo Bing Sheng	Lunar Eclipse Joel B. Hosmillo

Posted December 21, 2020