4 ms·

I'm always fascinated with die shots that look like artists drawings (black pen on purple/blue felt tip marker fields) as shown on a tube TV (slightly blurry/co

• kens 3y ago
  What I find interesting is that the colors aren't "real", in the sense that the materials aren't colored. The colors are mostly from thin-film interference due to the thin layers of material. And the black lines aren't "real" either; although the layers look flat, they form three-dimensional structures as they overlap. So many of the black lines show up because they are edges in three dimensions, not because they are actually black. Another consequence is that different chips look completely different due to the manufacturing process that was used, even though the bulk color of the materials is the same. Of course, the images would be sharper if I had a more expensive microscope, since the quality of the optics matters too :-)
  • colechristensen 3y ago
    One has to be careful because there are several sources of “color” and it’s hard to argue successfully that any of them are more “real” than the others.