Thursday, September 6, 2012

Viewing an active electronic circuit with a scanning electron microscope

I used my DIY scanning electron microscope to view a 555 timer circuit while it was powered. The circuit is a simple oscillator with a very long time constant to make the changes easy to see. My plan was to view the silicon die itself, and hopefully discern changes in its internal circuitry as the oscillations occurred. As it turns out, I was only able to "see" the charge of the electrical wires going to the chip socket. There is likely a clear oxide layer that covers the silicon die, and needs to be removed with hydrofluoric acid in order to use the SEM to inspect the die itself while powered.




6 comments:

  1. Good old home-built SEM, the best hack ever..

    For the uninitiated -- what are those round patches?

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  2. Rob, which round patches? The IC socket holes?

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  3. No, the fabric patches stuck to the SEM :)

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  4. Rob, they are Maker patches from Maker Faire Bay Area. http://makerfaire.com/bayarea/2012/index.html

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  6. Hi Ben. May be is it not the right place for this post but ... I've a question about homemade SEM : Did you really used 10kV as voltage for your Everhart-Thornley detector, may be less ? Did you remember ?

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