I just discovered the forum a couple nights ago and have been reading posts non-stop. I love the work everyone is doing. As a kid I remember taking apart a computer and marveling at the chips, wondering about the 'magic' contained within. In particular, I remember opening up a machine I found 'dumpster diving' and finding the MOS logo. That logo stuck with me as something special. Every time I see it I get a warm nostalgic feeling. I'm not all that technically adept, I have a general feel for basic analog electronics, am comfortable with computers, and enjoy learning about chemistry but, am not deeply involved in any of them.
This is my first post and hope that I'm not asking a question that's been answered in detail already. I searched and found some related material but, not a specific thread on the subject. If the thread is out there and I missed it, I apologize in advance for the clutter.
As the subject states, I'm interested in learning how one would go about photographing wafers and masks. I have no particular experience and am not a photographer or artist. Having seen beautiful photos I'd love to know how it's done. Since I'm starting from zero, any info even simple suggestions, will be appreciated.
Thinking through things I imagine that there are two tracts one could follow; the path to artistic photos or the path leading to high-dimensional-accuracy photo-realistic images. On the artistic side I suspect that full spectrum light, maybe from different angles would produce nice effect. On the other hand lighting for accurate photos would need to be single point-source and for masks would likely need to be back lit.
I have some 4" wafers and masks that I'd eventually like to photo and share. As I said before, I don't have any special equipment so I'm in need of suggestions on how to clean the masks and reticles without damaging them. Ultimately, I'd like to get high resolution photos of the masks with highly defined lines without camera flare or distortion so that people can use something like Photoshop to 'stack' the layers and build a 3D representation of the chip the masks originally created.
If you have any thoughts to share related to cleaning, preservation, photo, or other experience you think I could benefit from, please do chime in and share.
Thanks!