July 27, 2014

KILAR KV1084 5A linear regulator : weekend die-shot

Remember good old times when you could feed CPU from single linear regulator? KILAR KV1084 came from this time.

Comparing to LM2940L or LM1117 there are more bonding pads per signal and obviously larger output transistors. Chip was soldered on copper heat spreader to help dissipate 10W+.

Die size 3075x3026 µm.


July 25, 2014

OPA627, genuine one this time : weekend die-shot

Last time we decapped 2 fake OPA627's from ebay: one was remarked AD744 part, another was unidentified remarked BB part.

Recently reader sent us one more OPA627 from ebay. This chip appeared to be genuine.

Die size 2940x2005 µm.


July 11, 2014

Milandr 1986VE21 : weekend die-shot

Milandr 1986VE21 - is a microcontroller for 3-phase electricity meters. Rare example of purely civilian Russian microchip which was not funded by any government agency.


May 22, 2014

KR580VM80A - getting ready for reverse engineering : weekend die-shot

We decided to take a closer look at the most popular soviet processor KR580VM80A (first shoot), so that group of enthusiasts (russian only) would be able to recover schematic from it's layout.



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May 17, 2014

Toshiba TCD1201D - linear CCD : weekend die-shot

Toshiba TCD1201D is a monochrome 2048-pixel linear CCD. You can also notice few extra pixels for calibration shielded with aluminum.

Die size 34814x802 µm.



With this die we've reached JPEG limits, full image would be 80k+ pixels wide, so we'll show beginning and the end of the CCD separately:




We are grateful to Kony for this chip.
May 3, 2014

SkyWorks AAT4292 - 7-bit high-side IO expander: weekend die-shot

SkyWorks AAT4292 is a 7-bit IO expander with 100mA 1.1Ω high-side switches per channel.
Die size 1193x618 µm.



After metallization etch:

April 12, 2014

Phillips PCF8574 - 8-bit I2C port expander : weekend die-shot

Phillips PCF8574 is 8-bit I2C port expander, 3µm manufacturing technology.