January 8, 2015
December 21, 2014

KR1818VG93 - FDD controller : weekend die-shot

Enthusiasts started yet another reverse engineering project of KR1818VG93 - FDD controller manufactured in USSR times. Presumably it has some compatibility/similarity with FDC1793-02 - this will be figured out.

Die size 4817x4794 µm, 6µm NMOS technology.



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November 17, 2014

Torex XC6206 - CMOS LDO : weekend die-shot

Torex XC6206 is a popular and really tiny CMOS LDO, especially if you compare it to older bipolar ones, which were magnitude larger. 250mA LDO in SOT-23 might be hard to believe at first.

Datasheet mentions "laser trimming" but we see voltage set via mask and 2 fuses for fine tuning. It is possible though that they have common values set in mask (like this 3.3V one) , and rare voltages laser trimmed.

Die size 500x356 µm, 500nm technology.



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November 10, 2014

DIP 10Mhz Quartz oscillator based on Seiko NPC HA5022A3 : weekend die-shot

Seiko NPC HA5022A3 contains internal load capacitors, oscillator with amplitude limiting (for reduced power consumption) and optional frequency divider.
Die size 976x770 µm.

Quartz crystal is mounted on springs - in order to reduce impact of vibration on oscillation stability and to make it's damage less likely:


There is an oscillator IC soldered on the ceramic PCB, as well as 0.01uF power supply decoupling cap. It seems we need to go deeper:

November 4, 2014
November 1, 2014

BFR93 - BJT RF transistor : weekend die-shot

BFR93 is a popular, BJT npn RF transistor.
Die size 265x264 µm. Transistor itself occupy only small part of the die - it is impractical to cut smaller die, it is already almost a silicon cube:



October 27, 2014

10Mhz Quartz SMD oscillator based on Seiko NPC SM5009 : weekend die-shot

Seiko NPC SM5009 contains internal load capacitors, oscillator with amplitude limiting (for reduced power consumption) and optional frequency divider.

Die size 1194x897 µm, 800nm technology.