Vertical · Semiconductors & industry
See the current inside the chip.
As chips stack into 2.5D and 3D packages, the faults that matter hide in buried layers that light and electrons cannot reach. A quantum magnetic microscope images the current itself, non-destructively, at room temperature.
The domain
The faults that matter are buried.
Advanced packaging stacks silicon into dense 2.5D and 3D structures. When something fails, the defect is often several layers down, invisible to optical and electron methods.
A magnetic field passes through the package that light cannot. Every current in a chip creates a magnetic field around it, so imaging that field reveals where the current actually flows, and where it should not. A quantum diamond microscope maps those fields at the micron scale, non-destructively, turning a magnetic image into a picture of buried current paths, shorts and defects. The same principle extends to industrial inspection, where sub-surface flaws in welds, batteries and critical parts carry a magnetic signature.
Why NV-diamond
A microscope that does not perturb what it measures.
Non-destructive
It images the field the chip already produces, without contact and without opening the package.
Sub-micron
A dense sensing layer resolves current paths at the micron scale, in buried layers.
Room temperature
No cryogenics and no vacuum, so it fits an analysis lab or a production line.
DC-capable
It reads static and low-frequency fields, a regime where many inspection methods are blind.
Our approach
From a lab demonstration to a robust instrument.
The physics of magnetic chip imaging is proven in the laboratory. Our work is to turn it into a rugged instrument: a nanofabricated sensing head and the embedded electronics around it, so the measurement is repeatable outside a physics bench. The differentiator is the material and the readout, not a one-off demonstration.
Questions
The basics, answered.
What is a diamond quantum microscope?
A diamond quantum microscope uses a dense layer of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond to image magnetic fields across a surface. Because every electrical current produces a magnetic field, the instrument can map current flow and magnetic features at the micron scale, at room temperature and without contact.
How does it find defects inside a chip?
Magnetic fields pass through the layers of a chip package that block light. By imaging the field a powered chip produces, the microscope reconstructs where current actually flows, revealing shorts, opens and buried defects non-destructively, even in stacked 2.5D and 3D packages.
What can it inspect beyond semiconductors?
The same magnetic-imaging principle applies to industrial non-destructive testing: sub-surface flaws, corrosion and fatigue in welds, batteries and critical metal parts all carry a magnetic signature that a diamond sensor can read, including at DC where eddy-current methods are weak.
Why does room-temperature operation matter here?
Room-temperature operation means no cryogenics and no vacuum chamber, so the instrument can sit in a failure-analysis lab or on a production line rather than in a specialised physics facility, which is what makes quantum magnetic imaging practical for industry.
Failure analysis or inspection where conventional methods stop?
We work with partners in advanced packaging, energy and critical-parts inspection. Tell us what you need to see.
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