Do we have the technology to automate reading of decapped chips so that we can reconstruct the logic, something like "OCR"? It seems like such a thing would be hard if it has to deal with all these weird details.
Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
31–40 of 54 posts
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#32I'm fascinated by the fact that we study this 31 year old technology and are amazed by the complexity
I am pretty sure ordinary people will be amazed by this technology even after a thousand years.
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#33Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
How are vias manufactured, and why tungsten (I suppose it has something to do with high fusion point?).
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#34Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
This is amazing! How did you get the pictures?
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#35Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
Late to the show, but this only works because the deposited charge always has the same sign, correct? For instance, if the ions used are positive icons (electrons stripped), the surface elements get positively charged, and the diodes drain that charge to the substrate. But, in operation, the surface elements are negatively charged, so the diodes block. (Right? Or is it the other way around?)
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#36Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
Are these structures automatically added by most EDA tools?
(If not, why not?)
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#37Do we have the technology to automate reading of decapped chips so that we can reconstruct the logic, something like "OCR"? It seems like such a thing would be hard if it has to deal with all these weird details.
It exists, though I don't know of any free or open versions
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#38Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
Late to the show, but this only works because the deposited charge always has the same sign, correct? For instance, if the ions used are positive icons (electrons stripped), the surface elements get positively charged, and the diodes drain that charge to the substrate. But, in operation, the surface elements are negatively charged, so the diodes block. (Right? Or is it the other way around?)
The diodes break down nondestructively under the voltage, getting rid of the charge regardless of polarity. During operation of the chip, the diodes are reverse biased, so they have no effect.
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#39Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
Great article! > Note that when the chip is completed, every transistor gate is connected to another transistor's source or drain (which provides the signal to the gate) That's a very curious assertion, which made me think a bit more (it feels incorrect at first but on a second thought it looks correct) I would think of "pure input pins" but I suppose those have pull-up or pull-down "resistors" which in silicon are a…
Yes, input pins are kind of an exception; the source or drain providing the voltage is external.
Re: Antenna Diodes in the Pentium Processor
#40Author here: I know this is a very obscure topic, but hopefully it will be interesting to some. Let me know if there are any questions...
This is amazing! How did you get the pictures?
I spent a long time with various chemical processes to remove the layers of the chip before discovering that 1500-grit sandpaper works shockingly well. Then I took the pictures with my metallurgical microscope and stitched the images together with a program called Hugin. I wrote a blog post about the process: https://www.righto.com/2015/12/creating-high-resolution-inte...