This sinister-looking gingerbread man is actually a cross section of some melted metal interconnects as seen with a focused ion beam. The focused ion beam is an instrument similar to the scanning electron microscope, except that it uses gallium ions to image a sample instead of electrons. The image came in sixth in the ”Art of Failure Analysis” competition at IEEE's 15th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits, in Singapore. See the top 10 images at /jul08/6433.
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IEEE Spectrum is the flagship publication of the IEEE — the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences. Our articles, podcasts, and infographics inform our readers about developments in technology, engineering, and science.