Well, John McMaster was able to do some IR imaging of a chip: https://hackaday.com/2019/06/20/seeing-transistors-switch-in... But in this case, I think it's easier to squint at the die to distinguish the features by subtle differences in color. It's possible to tell them apart, but I wasted a lot of time before realizing "Oh, that's a transistor‽"

High resolution thermal imaging is tightly regulated

The emission from silicon referred to by myself248 is in the near infrared, not the thermal range. It's a commonly used diagnostic technique for silicon solar cells:

https://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/characterisation/electro...

I don't know if it could be used for the much smaller features found on integrated circuits, though.

As the restrictions are now blocking the IMPORT of such equipment it really is getting to be quite a joke. In the US we are only allowed to have expensive potato quality cameras with 9fps and even then that's not shitty enough -- they also have to have to inject artificial noise into it!

Thermal is not the same as near-red IR, which is what is being discussed here.

Why?

Because the government knows IR would be a pivotal tool in a civilian guerrilla uprising, and they want to keep such things out of the hands of the proletariat?

Got it. It was a genuine question asked out of ignorance on my part.

How would the extra resolution be useful in warfare?

Anti aircraft missiles (everything from plane launched to manpads), heat seeking weaponry capabilities, night vision, multispectrum sensors, optical gas imaging and a whole host of other dual use scientific applications. High resolution thermal vision is the lynchpin behind all of them. I am not sure why they are still tightly controlled since you can easily acquire them overseas.

The US government is terrified of its citizenry, as they are the only people that stand a chance of “fixing” it.

I've been successful at making many electronic parts light emitters even when they're not designed to be.

Some last longer than others under the conditions.