Microscopy of Silicon Artwork

Examine integrated circuits in brightfield, darkfield, and differential interference contrast (DIC) reflected illumination to explore how silicon artwork is photographed. Instructions for operation of the tutorial appear below the applet window.

When the tutorial initializes, a sample is randomly chosen from the pull-down menu and presented in the microscope port with the slider adjustments also randomly set. Use the Focus and Lamp Intensity sliders to adjust the image focus and brightness. Use the Magnification slider or the blue arrow buttons to increase or decrease the sample magnification. To view another sample, use the pull-down menu to select a new integrated circuit. Toggle between brightfield, darkfield, and DIC illumination with the radio buttons, which appear between the sliders and the pull-down menu.

Our choice of images presented in the Silicon Zoo is heavily dependent upon appearance of this artwork in differential interference contrast illumination. As the magnification is increased in this tutorial, examine how various examples of artwork appear under different illumination conditions and compare the images to those appearing in the Silicon Zoo gallery.