Taking a look at decapped ICs

IC

Aside from wanting to play around with nitric acid, [Ben] really didn't have a reason to decap a few 74xx and 4000-series logic chips. Not that we mind, as he provides a great tutorial at looking at a bare IC that isn't covered in epoxy and resin. Most ICs are encased in a hard epoxy shell making it very difficult to look at the circuits within. [Ben] tried to grind this epoxy off with a Dremel … [Read more...]

Decapping integrated circuits with sap

decapping-with-sap

[James] is interested in reverse engineering some integrated circuits. One of the biggest hurdles in this process has always been just getting to the guts of the chip. He used acetone to dissolve the plastic case but had trouble getting through the epoxy blob. Commonly, the epoxy is soaked in nitric acid for a few minutes but [James] didn't have access to that chemical. Instead he popped into the … [Read more...]