Microchip Imaging: What Magnification is Needed for Electron Microscopy?

[Dr Wu]

TL;DR

Magnification needed to view microchips

Assuming the use of an electron microscope, what magnification would be needed to image a computer microchip at the micrometer level?

Thanks in advance.

 

[f95toli]

That obviously depends on what you want to look at "micrometer level" can mean many different things.
I'd say from a x10000 to about x100 000 or so. Any modern SEM will be able to do this.

Note that "micron level" isn't very difficult; a good optical microscope will resolve features down to about 2 um without problem.
Try doing an image search using Google, many SEM images will include a scale and often also the magnification

 

[berkeman]

image a computer microchip at the micrometer level?

My goodness. How old are these ICs that you want to image? We are in the low nanometer (nm) geometries now...

 

[Dr Wu]

One of the few images Google coughed up that actually included its magnification was this one by NASA. No such luck when it came to tracking down comparable images of microchips, though. Odd that. Could still be looking in the wrong places, of course.