Chip reverse engineering

• get some basic laboratory equipment - glassware (beakers, watch glass, Petri dishes, storage vials, wash bottles), hotplate
• get basic chemicals - concentrated sulphuric acid, fuming nitric acid
• build a fume hood
• try a few decapping methods
• buy a microscope
• build a probing station (rigid table with micromanipulators and stereo microscope, like this) for live analysis

• http://store.amscope.com/me300tz-9m.html

For IC analysis, you first need to expose the die. This process is called decapsulation. Silicon pr0n wiki has an extensive overview of methods. Methods that do not require lots of expensive equipment and we should try are:

• Cold WFNA
  • http://travisgoodspeed.blogspot.cz/2009/06/cold-labless-hno3-decapping-procedure.html
  • Pros:
    • There is considerably less fumes, because all work is done at room temperature.
  • Cons:
    • WFNA is expensive
    • Not suitable for live analysis
• Hot concentrated sulphuric acid
  • http://uvicrec.blogspot.cz/2010/11/sulphuric-acid-decapsulation.html
  • http://siliconpr0n.org/wiki/doku.php?id=decap:epoxy_acid#sulpheric_acid
  • Pros:
    • Concentrated sulphuric acid is quite cheap
  • Cons:
    • Boiling acid == corrosive and toxic fumes
    • Not suitable for live analysis
• RFNA with preheated chip
  • http://siliconpr0n.org/wiki/doku.php?id=decap:epoxy_acid#rfna_preheated_chip
  • Pros:
    • This method is used by Atmel failure analysis lab (source)
    • Suitable for live analysis
  • Cons:
    • Lots of very toxic fumes, fume hood is absolutely necessary
    • RFNA is a strong oxidizer, it has been used with kerosene as a rocket fuel

Stripping individual layers of die to study underlying ones.

• http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=40
• http://siliconpr0n.org/
• http://siliconpr0n.wikispaces.com/References
• http://siliconexposed.blogspot.cz/
• http://www.flylogic.net/blog/
• http://uvicrec.blogspot.cz/
• http://visual6502.org/docs/6502_in_action_14_web.pdf
• http://www.visual6502.org/JSSim/expert.html
• http://siliconzoo.org
• http://degate.org/
• #homecmos @ freenode
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT1FStxAVz4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoRVEw5gL8c
• http://www.chipworks.com/blog/recentteardowns/?Itemid=104
• http://www.chipworks.com/blog/technologyblog/?Itemid=103

• http://www.guitarcentre.cz/prislusenstvi/pece-o-nehty/lesticky/produkt-lestici-platno-micro-mesh/