Re: Bizarre, but in the interests of science...
You probably should use electrical tape, not duct/duck/etc tape.
Pretty much a non-issue - most systems will be cased or not exposed to Xenon light sources. Interesting though. Silicon is quite transparent to infrared light apparently, hence the Xenon light (which has massive infrared spikes) penetrates the unshielded component. The red laser pointer requires the light to reflect/diffuse under the package onto the surface of the chip, so merely epoxying the sides works for this.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
