How to Decap ICs with Sandpaper

This video shows my attempt to decap ICs using sandpaper and a granite surface plate. This method is very simple and fast, and accessible to nearly everyone. It has a much higher chance of damaging the ICs, so I am still working on improving the epoxy removal process after sanding, I've tried using a piece of aluminum but this still is too hard and can damage the glass insulating layer. So far a plastic spudger is the preferred tool, but it might have difficulty removing epoxy depending on the type (works better for coarse (lots of glass fill) epoxy, rather than smooth epoxy like I encountered on the RAM IC.

[@gambler301]

Awesome video.

[@binguslover0508]

you're good at this

[@jkenny1]

Yeah the epoxy is in contact with the die, the idea with sandpaper is to get the epoxy layer thin enough that you can see the die, but can easily scrape off the thin layer of epoxy with a soft tool like a plastic spudger which I used (sharpened plastic knife would probably work) to not damage the die.