The Art of Failure Analysis 2024

When your car breaks down, you take it to the mechanic. When a computer chip fails, engineers go to the failure analysis team. It’s their job to diagnose what went wrong and work to make sure it doesn’t in the future.

The International Symposium on the Physical and Failure analysis of Integrated Circuits (IPFA) is a yearly conference in Asia attended by failure analysis engineers. The gathering is mostly technical, but there’s also a fun part: The Art of Failure Analysis contest.

“It’s all about creativity and strong imagination,” says Willie Yeoh, chair of the Art of Failure Analysis contest this year. Anyone in the failure analysis community can submit an image taken during their everyday work that includes something surprising or unexpected, like a melted bit of silicon that looks like a dinosaur. Ten photos are chosen by the conference committee as the most interesting, and then conference attendees vote on their favorite among those.

We’ve gathered a collection of photos from the 2022 and 2024 Art of Failure Analysis contests (it did not run in 2023). Which one would you vote for?

Ballerina Under The Microscope

John Saputil/Analog Devices

Engineers at Analog Devices in the Philippines were searching for the presence of foreign materials on a failed device using a scanning electron microscope. They certainly found those out-of-place materials on this chip, appearing in the shape of a dancer mid-spin.

High Voltage Horse

An EOS damage along the High Voltage circuitry of a BMS device that resembles a horse's silhouette from breast to head. Mick Johnix Yu/Analog Devices

Mick Johnix Yu at Analog Devices was investigating how a battery management system failed. It had suffered from ”electrical overstress” damage, which is when a current or voltage is too high, causing thermal damage. Yu thought this damage looked like a black horse.

A Window Into Silicon

A die structure viewing from die back upon removed bulk silicon that resembles the colorful textured panes of a mosaic window. KC Chng/AMD

This photograph is of the back of a die, the silicon base an integrated circuit is made on. Engineers from AMD had just removed this die from the bulk silicon. They observed how the different areas on the die mimicked panes of glass on a mosaic window.

The Monster Blob

A mold compound material of QFN package after decapsulation process with charging special effects that resembles a masked creature's head. Marilou Regodon/Microchips

This swirling monster with large eyes appeared when testing an integrated circuit package used to connect silicon dies to a printed circuit board. Marilou Regodon, the engineer from Microchip Technology that took the image, called it a “terrifying twist in your nightmare” in her submission to the conference.

The Chick Has Risen

An electrical overstress (EOS) failure showing a junction damage and fused polysilicon with an appearance similar to a newly-hatched chick. John Roland Dean/Microchip Technology Operations Corp.

This newly hatched chick rising from the depths of surrounding silicon appeared to John Roland Dean of Microchip Technology. It was caused by an electrical overstress that fused polycrystalline materials together.

Electric Labyrinth

Visual captured on die structure upon ILD removal by Zeiss SEM resembling an aerial view of a hedge maze. Lan Yin Lee/AMD

Lan Yin Lee at AMD in Singapore observed this maze on a die structure after removing an insulating protective layer. The walls of the maze, captured with a scanning electron microscope, are only micrometers (one-millionth of a meter) long.

It’s Watching You

A cross-sectional view of the computed tomography data from a 3D X-ray scan of an electromagnetic solenoid valve, resembling a mysterious, tilted, ghost-like face. Herminso Villarraga Gómez/Zeiss

Stare long enough at this electromagnetic solenoid and it might start to stare back. Do you see a ghost, a dog, or something else? “You have to put in a little bit of imagination,” says Herminso Villarraga Gómez, who took the photo as he conducted assembly analysis on this part.

Damage Taking Root

Grayscale squiggles resembling ginseng roots, pictured next to a real photo of ginseng for comparison. Left: Tsang Yat Fung/A*STAR; Right: iStock

Failure analysis engineers at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) spotted the roots of a ginseng plant in their investigations.

The Skull Mask

Grayscale shapes and textures that vaguely resemble a fossilized, halloween-like mask. IPFA

This micrometer long bulge looks like a creepy mask if viewed at the right angle.

Sunflower

Grayscale microscopic textures vaguely resembling the seeds and petals on the face of a sunflower. MA-tek

These patterns in the surface of a silicon wafer reminded its discoverer of a field of sunflowers.

Lips

Grayscale clay-like lumps vaguely resembling sculpted human lips. IPFA

If these lips could speak, perhaps they’d let us know why their device broke and save the failure analysis team some work.

Flowering Sea Anemone

Grayscale microscopic shapes resembling a sphere of shards or spikes. MA-tek

This bloom could be a sea anemone, as the submitting team at MA-tek, in Taiwan, thought. We thought it could also be a flower or porcupine. What do you see?

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