July 1, 2022

DW01R - LiIon protection chip : weekend die-shot

Which microchip protects the most property and human life? Automotive? Healthcare? I think this one could be the winner.
DW01R is a LiIon battery protection chip - and saves millions of homes from burning down.

Die size - 769x757 µm.


June 6, 2022

National LH0042CH - hybrid opamp with FET frontend : weekend die-shot

National LH0042CH came from the time when you could not have had high-performance BJT and FET transistors on the same die. Even in 2022 there is still room for hybrid opamps, for example external JFET frontend still allows one to reach lower noise compared to integrated IC.

Main die size 1053x825 µm, frontend die 567x520 µm.


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May 29, 2022

ITT Intermetall SAH181 - 30% of 70's multimeter : weekend die-shot

ITT Intermetall SAH181 comes from a time when you needed multiple chips to build 3/4-digit multimeter. It is a part of multimeter chipset: roughly, SAH161 receives comparator output and contains part of ADC logic, SAH171 is "memory" for storing digits to be displayed (there are different versions for 1000/2000/10'000/20'000 count multimeters) and finally SAH181 scans digits from memory (SAH171) and displays them using single external BCD->7 segment decoder.

Die size 1697x1439 µm.


May 22, 2022

Motorola MC1709CG - monolithic opamp : weekend die-shot

Motorola MC1709CG - monolithic opamp without frequency compensation.
Die size 1140x1015 µm.



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May 16, 2022

National LM301AH - general purpose opamp : weekend die-shot

Die size 1111x1111 µm. You can also see one from Motorola.


May 9, 2022

RCA CA3043 - FM receiver base : weekend die-shot

RCA CA3043 is a base for building FM receiver: 4-stage IF amplifier, limiter, AF preamplifier, audio driver.
Die size 1317x1284 µm.


May 8, 2022