ION Torrent 413 sequencer chips under a scanning electron microscope

I acquired two used ION torrent 314 semiconductor sequencing chips from a local lab and had some fun looking at them in a Phenom Pro desktop SEM with the Patent Engineer at work.  These chips bypass the usual fluorescence-based sequencing methods for an electronic process running in 10⁶ wells simultaneously.

ION Torrent 314 Chip

Bare chip under optical navigation microscope

With a little encouragement from a hot air rework station, the die was separated from the plastic cover and ceramic carrier.  The die was then mounted on the SEM sample holder.

One of the first things we found was the model number, with a stray bond wire. This is over on the left side of the optical image above.

 Over in the middle of the array the end of a crack looks a little like a scene from TRON.

 Judging from the scale at the bottom, the wells are about 3µm across on 5µm centers.

Here contrast has been adjusted to look in the wells and see the crystalized remains of the Ion Sphere™ Particles.