[Amen] wanted to inspect ICs on the PCBs for suitability for reuse, so he bought a metallurgical microscope that illuminates from above rather than below, since it normally looks at opaque things.

Metallurgical microscopes are specially-designed microscopes that are used for metallurgical evaluation, including the assessment of metals, ceramics and other materials. Specialty uses of these ...

The microscope speeds up the inspection process from observation ... it is perfect for inspecting materials with extremely small height changes, such as minerals and metallurgical structures. When ...

Of course, the LEDs go through the sample, so this is suitable for transmissive microscopes, not metallurgical ones, at least in the current incarnation.