Art of Failure 2011

The surprising stuff you find when chips fail

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Image: Rudolf A. Sia
First place went to this charming image, which looks like a silhouette of an apatosaurus on a small, rocky planet. The planet is a ball of solder made of a mixture of tin and lead, and the silhouette is an anomalous patch of pure lead on the surface.

Sometimes art is accidental. At IEEE's 18th International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits, held 4 to 7 July in Incheon, South Korea, participants submitted pictures of surreal and spectacular close-ups of microchips, competing for the most affecting image. This is the fourth year IEEE Spectrum has featured the finalists from IPFA's "Art of Failure Analysis" contest. Click on the links for winners from 2010, 2009, and 2008.

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