Electronic – What’s the damage incurred by the chip on this photo

damageintegrated-circuit

The "generic error" page features this damaged chip with some kind of cavity:

enter image description here

I guess it's some typical damage, but I have no idea of what it might be.

What's the damage incurred by this chip and how is such damage typically incurred?

Best Answer

Thermal damage. Part of chip, mostly metal, overheated, melted and evaporated, after some pressure build up it exploded. Cause is shorting. Cause of shorting can be anything, from manufacturing defect, to ESD, extraterrestrial particle, overvoltage, mechanical stress, bad design, or even software.

The chip itself is not visible on picture. What fell off is only the mold/casing material.