April 30, 2017

1107PV2 - 20MHz 8bit Soviet flash ADC : weekend die-shot

1107PV2 is another Soviet flash ADC - 8-bit with 20MHz conversion rate.



Closer look at comparators:

April 24, 2017

1107PV3A - 100MHz 6bit Soviet ADC : weekend die-shot

1107PV3A is a state of the art Soviet 6-bit (+overflow output) flash ADC with impressive 100MHz conversion rate. Rated for 500g continuous linear acceleration.
Die size 3959x2755 µm.


April 17, 2017

LR433A - Chinese 433MHz SAW resonator : weekend die-shot

This Chinese LR433A is a SAW resonator at 433MHz. Heart of numerous simplest RF transmission systems. Die is transparent - it's quartz.

It was packaged this dirty (it looks more like photoresist processing defect). Die size 3681x769 µm.


Comb pitch 3.2µm (line+space). Another specimen had cute defect: only miracle left 2 terminals not shorted:

February 28, 2017

A look inside Russian 28nm MIPS CPU - Baikal-T1

Many of you might have heard about Baikal-T1 - Russian implementation of dual core Imagination Technologies MIPS P5600 32 r5 with on-board 10Gb Ethernet. Baikal was the first to implement P5600 core in silicon.

CPUs itself (had to go through 4 pieces to get a good die):

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February 19, 2017

Fake Hitachi HA17555 : weekend die-shot

This fake 555 is marked as Hitachi HA17555.
Die size 747x762 µm.



For some reason different die sample had significantly different color:
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February 16, 2017

National LM394CH - super matched BJT : weekend die-shot

National LM394CH - has 2x50 interleaved BJT transistors in parallel in order to get 2 transistors with well-matched parameters. This is often desired in discrete op-amps. Not sure why this trick is rarely used in integrated opamps.

Die size 1449x1347 µm.



Chip is soldered to ceramic substrate holder: