How I reverse engineer a chip

A whirlwind tour of my procedure going from physical chip to annotated die image to schematic to wiki page to you!
Some updates since I made this video: I no longer have a Patreon. I ditched them after they started becoming unfriendly to small contributors and small projects by making the fee structure punishing for those.
Also, why do this? For me personally, it's primarily curiosity, a DIY desire to build up skills, my own education, and trying to build a nice library of images on project5474.org for others to learn from. There are practical applications for more modern chips, namely investigations for patent infringement, and of course competitive research. "Reverse engineering" doesn't just mean "I don't know how this works", but "I want to find out exactly how this was implemented". Different chip manufacturers built the same logic chips in different ways and it's interesting to see the differences.
More on the process:
* Hot sulfuric acid decapsulation of plastic packages: • Decapsulating a plasti...
* Heat decapsulation of ceramic packages: • Decapsulating a cerami...
* Reverse engineering a simple CMOS chip: • Reverse engineering a ...

[@k5at]

I worked for TI back in 1972-74 and was part of the design team that designed many of the LS series of parts, including this one.

[@nandoedwin1]

This is really one nice comment to find on youtube, LS chips have been used all over the world as an introduction for electronics and still in use, I really hope you feel nice knowing that your work helped me out to get into electronics and a lot of people out there too, thank you sir.

[@k5at]

@@nandoedwin1 Thanks for the reply. I worked at TI for about 6 years, Also for Apple Computer for 5 years and Dell Computer for 1 year. I was the battery expert at Dell. BTW, some of the TI Chips will have my initials on the die.

[@RWBHere]

Did the same thing with the devices which I helped to develop in the 70's and 80's @@k5at A skilled craftsperson likes to leave a mark. 😉 It's sometimes amazing how small and unobtrusive a signature you can leave.

[@varshneydevansh]

@@k5at OMG this is so cool. I bought LS chips to build my Ben Eater style 8 bit computer

[@krishnabirla]

"Although it might not look like it, some steps can take days" he says. Well, it does look like most steps can take days. Amazing work.

[@metaparcel]

This seems like some sort of lost art.

[@JOELwindows7]

This is your daily dose of Recommendation Reverse engineering chips

[@Rainbow__cookie]

Yeah and this is quite fun to watch Thanks KZbin

[@JOELwindows7]

@@Rainbow__cookie yeah. Thx KZbin.

[@thehonkening1]

Beats the TMZ news abt Kylie Jenner that was just recommended to me

[@millanferende6723]

This is lie when I encountered painting restorations. Quite relaxing.

[@JOELwindows7]

@@millanferende6723 yess. Such relacc

[@chedidkamal837]

1986: we will gonna have flying cars in the 2020s 2020s: we will try to reverse EVERY 80s chip

[@thereborne5219]

wish we could write messages in doritos xd

[@darrenmarchant1720]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2XUl2epZp50pck FIRST PERSONAL MULTICOPTER WAS TESTED IN THE USA

[@Nyarmith]

this is too real

[@xcvsdxvsx]

quality comment right here

[@yowut8075]

Think nasa could go to the moon today?

[@2GFactFinder]

It took several hours in college for us to learn this art, but you explained it in just 5 minutes. Great video.

[@Asdayasman]

I feel like there's a huge gap between "here's a high quality image of each layer" and "here's the chip reverse engineered".

[@eventhorizon8014]

i was hoping for more, too. Interesting nontheless :)

[@greekstraycats]

Well, I guess this is not true for the pure TTL devices. There is not too much voodoo on those chips

[@Breadbored.]

@Fez Paladin Check out EEVBlog. Dave does some videos on reverse engineering circuit boards. While they're larger and easier to see, the principle remains the same(or very similar). He's also quite comical to watch.

[@dfs-comedy]

You can identify transistors visually and trace out the interconnect. It's not that hard... Just a bit tedious.

[@Asdayasman]

@@dfs-comedy Dianne, please see my hundreds of upvotes and every single reply to my comment other than you having no idea to please realise you might not know how hard something that you can do easily is.

[@The.Doctor.Venkman]

Thank you for doing this for the EE community and future generations.

[@princeedhwardhezmi6469]

As someone who learm EE i can say google is scaring me cus how did they know i learn EE

[@harrisons62]

Adhwa Hazim KATERIMEIKA RIKAZIKIRIN Zulkifli hopefully you’re not learning in an English speaking country

[@princeedhwardhezmi6469]

@@harrisons62 luckily i live in Malaysia, so our mother tongue is not English, but our secondary compulsory language is English ahahah

[@shahbazkhan270]

@@princeedhwardhezmi6469 google is always listening to u

[@soulwaker44]

What a beautiful work station. I wish I had something of the same caliber. Great video Robert!

[@mattd773]

Holy smokes. I've used computers for a long time. But not as much on the circuit board and chip level. Seeing your photo results and describing the lay out of the chip was really eye opening for me. Also I've never seen the different layers like that before. Very cool. Thank you.

[@mr.apparatus9108]

Thank you for being so thorough. This is awesome.

[@PoulLarsenmusic]

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I could watch the stitch image layering all day for relaxation

[@AD-qw4fh]

This is such great work and a lot of help for others who might need it for reference.

[@SameBasicRiff]

i love that people like you do these things and make videos like this!

[@PerchEagle]

That's so beautiful work, you can explain some of the basics of electronics engineering.

[@emikosuzuki4328]

Me: learning chip design ...and KZbin recommends this video

[@vinigretzky97]

jup, they are listening. always. just last weekend i discussed the fall of the soviet union with my dad. one day later, youtube recommends me the tagesschau from 89 (fall of DDR).

[@micheledambrosio1680]

@@vinigretzky97 or he made some research on Google

[@EnricoZulu]

@@micheledambrosio1680 we don't trust you GLaDOS

[@MarkMcDaniel]

Same. ECE student.

[@dannylu6230]

Me:Doing nothing. KZbin: Hey do you want to know how he does this?

[@enrices]

Thank you so much for contributing so much to the community ! People like you make this world possible

[@henricoderre]

Your work is amazing and immensely appreciated by those of us who like to know, but can not afford to.

[@Kenji314159]

Wow, that is respectable work. Good job.

[@arcspwan7867]

This is quite informative. This would be amazing if you could do this for the Gameboy MBC(memory bank controllers) and the Gameboy Advance custom Arm7tdmi.

[@Rousnay]

Great video and happy to see such work station

[@aimless3827]

It took so long for youtube to recommend channel like this. I lovw your diy things.

[@shyleshsrinivasan5092]

Wow ! Very interesting and well made ! Thanks a lot for sharing !

[@Alan96555]

Que bueno que encontre tu canal, tenes publicadas muchas cosas interesantes! Saludos desde argentina!

[@MrTacoSr]

Wow! Really great for future EE’s to learn! Thank you for your work

[@shridharpatil8310]

I am really grateful to your work , thanks robert sir

[@boonedockjourneyman7979]

Thank you. You are a very patient person.

[@manafro2714]

you make quality content! keep up the awesome work!

[@das250250]

Excellent work and processes

[@saskiavanhoutert3190]

Fantastic work that is done, like it, makes technology more futher possible

[@lexluthor3890]

This is the first video I've come across that you've made. Now I'm going to check out the decapping video and more!

[@gcm4312]

thank you for your open knowledge contributions

[@adisharr]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing the process :)

[@cosmic_husky]

This was very nice, thank you for sharing this with us.

[@DIY3DTECHcom]

This is amazing! I never realized this was even possible...

[@lil-warning]

New to your KZbin and love to see more, I'll support you just keep it up!

[@devrim-oguz]

Excellent job you make here!

[@mauler1783]

Excellent job doing this work.

[@elkrutarth]

that's insane, blows my mind away. How much affort someone has to required in order to do that?!?!? thanks man.

[@ramwagh2103]

Great job you've done there....This is something new I learnt today......Keep it up

[@Construction-agencyCoUk]

so cool - great vid robert!

[@oleglosev3510]

Your work is impressive..thanks for sharing it.

[@repairtech9320]

The movie Paycheck comes to mind looking at your work.

[@ITpanda]

Awesome work! Appreciate your work.

[@TinkerManMick]

Very clever! That looks like a heck load of work mate

[@MarkSeve]

Beautiful work.

[@GabrielKleinCH]

Lot of simple but clever ideas! :)

[@cepi24]

Sir this was amazing. Thank you very much for your amazing work

[@madhureshminoshi4272]

thanks for all your hardwork :)

[@malikjunaid1]

This is simply great work. Thumbs up for you.

[@DjSeptimus]

Wow didn't know about ICE program. I am a photographer and make panoramas, I think this will be my new tool of choice.

[@oljobo]

Real Talk? Yep, it works, and it's FREE 😃😃

[@ferna2294]

You are on another level. This is GOLD.

[@yunuszor9091]

Hello, I really enjoyed watching your video. Thank you for uploading.

[@martinconstable5911]

Truly amazing work!

[@whiteflag2366]

This is very cool! Nice job!

[@Exsorthious]

Amazing work.

[@djtecthreat]

Thank you for your work!!

[@hotplugin]

Excellent work

[@LukeSeed]

Excellent engineering!

[@issacrobin758]

I Looove this. It is really impressive work.

[@ISOTROPOSPHERE]

That is really fantastic and I am fascinated, thank you for making this video.

[@UruguayOC]

Outstanding work !!!

[@SteveHacker]

I had no idea this was even possible! My mind is blown! MAN, I wish I could study with you!

[@svendittmann3105]

James Bond could that already

[@pepefubias7654]

thank you robert i can´t get it but it is so nice to see such meticulous work impresive very impresive i wonder if there are videos showing the normal process i mean how they make them but i think this is much more difficult in a way specially made in this artisan way incredible thanks again for showing us so well

[@nagendranayak5010]

Never seen any content like this...I really appreciate this awesome work...(new sub to ur channel, hope I get awesome deconstructions & many more)😊

[@atanughosh4221]

Rob, great video thanks. Can you give a video tour of the equipment setup of your chip lab.

[@3deeguy]

Wow. I didn't expect this video to hold my interest. I loved it. I just subscribed.

[@RWBHere]

Thanks for showing us your very serviceable setup. 🙂👍Used to do this sort of thing professionally, almost half a century ago. It's slow, patient, fascinating and satisfying work. We also used near-UV light at high magnification (1200x and higher) to find surface features down to about a micron in width. A micron wide feature appears as a fuzzy line in that light, but you can make good use of interference patterns to figure out exactly what is going on. You can also etch through the layers of Silicon, to learn about Gate sizes, Oxide depths, doping depths, etc. It's possible to discern depths and thicknesses down to within a few hundred Angstroms, using similar optical methods and very careful etching; controlling etchant temperature, concentrations, mixtures and temperatures.

[@excessY]

great job ! That's a lot of work

[@unaphiliated5090]

I remember the big softcover books that TI made to describe their chips, the LS172 was a popular one.

[@tamyboy1]

Great work man

[@UNGETABLE7]

Who on earth would dislike this? Nice one my friend! Have an awesome day!

[@quantummath]

wonderful work

[@paulogp4629]

Oh, man... It's a lot of work. Congrats!

[@TheArtofRepair]

What a fantastic channel, keep it up.

[@johnkraemer5505]

Very cool! Nice work!

[@desimedia6521]

Awesome work. I really like it.

[@supremeleader5516]

amazing work

[@leosmi1]

thank you for your amazing work

[@shis10]

Awesome video . Very informative.

[@jyotiradityadeka2905]

Nice work sir

[@jean-baptistelasselle4562]

Hi Robert, to answer your question : Yes I enjoyed very much your video. I fell on it on youtube, and it's exactly what I would have dreamt of, without even trying to ask : You are here describing in high details, th work cycle of professional hardware engineering. Maybe I'll have an opportunity to explain you why, I was digging everywhere to find that. Many thanks for your excellent work : I know how much work it is to make videos that feel so easy and informative at the same time Jean-Baptiste

[@hardwareful]

It looks like you have a trinocular microscope or at least a switchable camera port. Having had an AmScope with the latter configuration I ended up 3D-printing a clamp to which a wooden board was screwed. The board, having a notch and a covering of foam tape allowed one to just place the phone onto it, looking at a regular eyepiece popped into the camera port. It's a worthwhile build that maintains the convenience and connectivity of a smartphone.

[@alimoradi2323]

Fantastic job

[@qayoumsharpyade6980]

This is amazing ... You are today's real IT scientist ...

[@MrKrisstain]

I've recently started to enjoy KZbin recommendations, because at times it actuall gets it right! Like this video/channel. Some weird geek talking about how he reverse engineers chips: wow! Instant subscription!

[@jayscoottey]

As someone in their second year of EET at college, this blows my mind.

[@lolbots]

quit while you're ahead, kid

[@kshitezroshan8021]

awesome job keep it up sir

[@bryanotero123]

Im not into this kind of stuff but yet u deserved a subscribe, amazing stuff

[@jaideeptiwari5855]

Great work

[@wendersonj]

Awesome ! Congrats and thanks !!

[@manjeetkumar]

This guy is master of this art.

[@progamermat]

Salute for your work.

[@mr.mythoclast4451]

nice work !

[@AlvaroGomes]

Very cool work.

[@AllaBader01]

Great job!

[@sbfarmer8]

i think this is nutz. you have a skill that is special and I completely support you. -- thank you

[@CloudandZack1st]

hey! nice raise 3d printer mate. In the last months me and a co worker were able to convince the company we work for to buy one. We got the pro plus and it is amazing.

[@djronin00]

Amazing job!!

[@jonas-fr]

Fascinating. I wonder where the progress will go in 5 or 10 years. Specifically if the chemical aspect would be still here of it would be as simple as popping and IC in a DIY cheap decapping laser machine that automatically etch away the material and take pictures of the die.