Fri 25 Apr 2008
IC Friday: Spring cleaning edition (free dies)
Posted by nico under Components , Icy Friday[14] Comments
Since I have started the IC Friday weekly section, I have accumulated a significant number of exposed dies. In a general effort to reduce clutter, I would like to give these away as it is unlikely that I will refer to the dies in the future. The 70 or so dies will be split into two categories, digital and analog, and each will be mailed to a random commenter using the US Postal Service. If you are interested, leave a comment below indicating your preference for digital or analog dies. Please use a valid email address when making the reply, I will need it to contact you and it will not be displayed to the public. I will keep this open for two weeks and will let MATLAB (2008a) decide the winners on May 9th. Good luck and feel free to post any questions.
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Would you care to offer us some tips about how you expose the dies? Of course, I’m sure the technique varies, depending upon the packaging. It used to be quite easy to peel the metal top off of ceramic and metal parts [1]. With epoxy encapsulated parts, I’ve found that squeezing them lengthwise in a vise sometimes causes the epoxy to pop apart, although I’ve also ruined quite a few dies in this manner. There’s also the approach of softening the epoxy with RFNA [2], but that requires some rather specialized chemicals and safety procedures.
Anyway, I was just curious.
[1] This was used to make some early camera-like sensors from DRAM chips.
[2] If someone doesn’t know what RFNA is,
then they don’t need to be using it!
Dave
It ought to be pretty neat to frame the slides and put them up in my office.
Digital would be neater, but I’m not picky.
Thanks for doing IC Friday in the first place.
Nick, I’d love an analog die. Thanks!
Hi Dave,
Most of the chips I uncap are in epoxy/plastic packages so I simply put them into a sulfuric acid bath and on a hot plate (in a fume hood). After about ten minutes, I turn off the heat and let them cool. I dilute the solution 1000x with water and neutralize the acid and what remains is typically the dies and the metal pins. There are probably better methods to do this, however, it works pretty well for die imaging.
How hot do you keep the acid bath? I’m wondering if a crockpot might be suitable.
Also, if possible an analog die would be wonderful:)
Hi there.
Thank you so much for maintaining such an entertaining and informative blog! Keep it up — there aren’t enough independent EE-related blogs in the sphere.
I work in medical device design. But my friends work in VLSI. We’ve been playing with the idea of recording a weekly podcast. It would be sort of a roundtable discussion combining current events (tech-related), serious engineering, and the future of technology. Based on your experience with a very tech-oriented blog, do you think there would be an audience for such a podcast?
Peetr
Die preference: 1) Larger Die, or 2) Analog
Thanks!
Hi Peetr, thank you for the compliment, I will try to keep it up. As for the podcast, you might as well give it a try. Many of the bigger podcasts seem to have an interest in selling products which may turn off individual designers from regularly listening. I work with some forms of medical device design and follow VLSI, so I would like to hear what you and your friends have to say. If you do start it, feel free to post (or email me) the address so that I can link to it.
Google Reader just recommended this blog to me.. Great site, esp. since the first post I read seems to be giving away free stuff
Die preference: Mixed-signal if possible
Would love to get one of them. Not picky; analog or digital will work. Thanks!
al
Hi nico, If you are giving them away, I won’t complain. As for die preference maybe one of those chipcon radios or any mixed-signal one.
Hi,
Thanks for all your hard work, I love your pictures. I have a mems picture as my wall paper at the moment =)
If you dont mind Canadians, Id like a digital one please,
I’d love to get one! I’d prefer a digital die =)
I’m Brazilian… But if you take paypal i’d pay for shipping/handling!
the problem is…
ps.I currently have your PIC12F629 die image as my wallpaper
If you’re giving them away, I can’t bring myself to say no! I marvel over your images every time you post an IC Friday, and would love to get my hands on a digital die!
[...] I recently had the pleasure of receiving some exposed ICs from a giveway on Nick Chernyy’s blog — he decaps them using sulfuric acid and takes fantastic closeups under a [...]