We caught this silicon Smurf pulling a wagon containing the copyright symbol around the pad ring on a Siemens integrated circuit of unknown function (the M879-A3). Like other Smurfs, this figurine was originally created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford (also known as Peyo), and introduced into the United States in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, the Smurf culture exploded when the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) launched a cartoon series featuring the tiny creatures. Smurfs typically are blue, wear white hats, and stand three apples high. This guy goes against the grain with his orange skin and yellow hat. In addition, he is only about 60 micrometers high, more than 1000 times smaller than a single apple.

The photomicrograph was donated to the Silicon Zoo by German photographer Karl E. Deckart, who is one of our featured microscopists. To view more of Karl's work, visit his Mikro/Makro website, which contains a sampler of his transmitted and reflected light images captured with a microscope.