What is it.... the game! Post unknown objects to ID... and to stump others!

Mite?

Sand flea

There might be mites as large as this thing but I don't think so. This is 10x-20x times larger than mites I'm most familiar with & it flies. At least it did before I caught it, stuck it's butt in silver paste, & possibly put it in a critical point dryer. Then probably sputter coated it with gold or carbon but maybe not. After that it was put in a vacuum chamber & pumped down to approximately the same vacuum level as outer space. Then I zapped it with what appears to be a 5000 volt electron beam to create this image. Maybe much higher voltage at first. Notice the missing eye. Bad things happen when biological samples get too much voltage. I worked in all sorts of labs & research facilities but primarily semiconductor labs & factories. Sorry bug, stay off my lawn lab.

There hasn't been any guesses in about 24 hours. Everyone gets participation trophies but no cigars. That was a gnat.

This might be easier. Who knows what these are?

Part of a MEMS gyroscope, or some other similarly-scaled computer component?

Sort of. Maybe. Possibly. Those are bonding pads that connect an integrated circuit to the outside world before the device is encapsulated. I have no notes about exactly what specific devices are shown. Could be almost any integrated circuit.

Here are some more examples.

It's worth pointing out that some of those pix show some defects which is probably why I took them in the first place. The whiskers on the set of leads on the bonding pads is not normal. The splattering on the other is also a defect. The middle picture appears to be a defect with the etch process. "Chips" are made with many layers, each having an etch process done to it. Put some stuff on then take some of it off. Rinse & repeat.

Mike Barkley wrote:It's worth pointing out that some of those pix show some defects which is probably why I took them in the first place. The whiskers on the set of leads on the bonding pads is not normal. The splattering on the other is also a defect. The middle picture appears to be a defect with the etch process. "Chips" are made with many layers, each having an etch process done to it. Put some stuff on then take some of it off. Rinse & repeat.

Okay, that's pretty much what I thought I was seeing, too.

Thanks for that, now I'll be walking around the rest of the week with the music from Koyaanisqatsi stuck in my head...

Anybody care to guess the diameter of these tiny latex spheres?

Says 1 nanometer there at the bottom, with a scale line that's about the width of one of the spheres...

So, what are they exactly?

Look at that strange character again. They are latex spheres used to check astigmatism in electron microscopes.

Those are 1 micrometer spheres.