Cool Pic Archive Pages
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These images have been chosen for their uniqueness. Subject matter ranges from
historic events, to really cool phenomena in science and engineering, to relevant
place, to ingenious contraptions, to interesting products (which now has its own
dedicated Featured Product
category).
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 BeachLim 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
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