X-Ray tomography of Transistors in 3D at 4 nm precision

Amazing stuff! I believe, Wilhelm Röntgen would be impressed since his discovery of X-rays in 1895!

"An upgraded X-ray imaging technique can provide crisp, 3D images of the inner workings of chips, revealing their designs and their flaws. The method has a resolution of 4 nanometers, providing images clear enough to map a chip’s wiring paths and reveal tiny transistor features without destroying the chip. ..."

From the abstract:

"... Whereas electron microscopy provides nanometre resolution through serial, destructive imaging of surface layers1, ptychographic X-ray computed tomography offers non-destructive imaging and has recently achieved resolutions down to seven nanometres for a small volume. Here we implement burst ptychography, which overcomes experimental instabilities and enables much higher performance, with 4-nanometre resolution at a 170-times faster acquisition rate, namely, 14,000 resolution elements per second. Another key innovation is tomographic back-propagation reconstruction, allowing us to image samples up to ten times larger than the conventional depth of field. By combining the two innovations, we successfully imaged a state-of-the-art (seven-nanometre node) commercial integrated circuit, featuring nanostructures made of low- and high-density materials such as silicon and metals, which offer good radiation stability and contrast at the selected X-ray wavelength. These capabilities enabled a detailed study of the chip’s design and manufacturing, down to the level of individual transistors. We anticipate that the combination of nanometre resolution and higher X-ray flux at next-generation X-ray sources will have a revolutionary impact in fields ranging from electronics to electrochemistry and neuroscience."

X-Rays Image Transistors in 3D - IEEE Spectrum "You can now make a map of even the most advanced chips without destroying them"

New X-ray world record: Looking inside a microchip with 4 nanometre precision (original news release)

High-performance 4-nm-resolution X-ray tomography using burst ptychography (no public access, but here is a link to the PDF file)

A 4-nanometer resolution X-ray technique can render a chip's inner workings from the large interconnects at the top to the transistors at the bottom.

Burst ptychography reveals the transistor fins and gate contacts [right]. The color [left bar] is electron density in charges per cubic angstrom.