Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [die]

A die is a small block of semiconducting material on which a given functional integrated circuit is fabricated. Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon (EGS) or other semiconductor (such as GaAs) through processes such as photolithography. The wafer is cut (“diced”) into many pieces, each containing one copy of the circuit. Each of these pieces is called a die.

A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated. Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon (EGS) or other semiconductor (such as GaAs) through processes such as photolithography. The wafer is cut (“diced”) into many pieces, each containing one copy of the circuit. Each of these pieces is called a die.

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Can I cut an IC?

As far as I understand, the die of a DIP package is located at the center and the rest is just the lead frame. Given that I have unused pins, can I cut the top part of this microcontroller (ATmega16/32)? Will it still function afterwards? Edit:…
v.m.
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How is wafer dicing economical (for small ICs)?

Is my understanding that, for a given technology, the cost of making a silicon wafer is pretty much fixed, in the sense that it will not change no matter how much you fill the space (how many ICs you can squeeze in a single wafer.) Once the wafer is…
valerio_new
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Using decapped ICs in production

We were looking for a very specific type of ADC in a small package for one of our projects, and found something suitable in a TSSOP. We wanted to save more space, so looked into getting bare dies; the manufacturer confirmed the dies are 2mm square,…
Jack B
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Are some CPUs implemented in standard cells and are others customized?

Explaining the question more, I see some die pictures which are implementing a Cortex-M0, with Bluetooth LE and so on, depending on the chip functionality, and are appearing like this (nRF51822): While on older CPUs I cannot see much digital…
thexeno
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ADC stops functioning when cold

EDIT: VERY INTERESTING TEST RESULTS I just tried inducing the thermal failure using an inverted "can of air" (likely difluoroethane). It even when its super cold, (might even be below -40C), it does not fail! Then when I breathe warm (wet) air on…
Tim Vrakas
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If the integrated circuit die is very small what is the role of the extra circuit packaging?

I noticed that the actual integrated circuits of processors, GPUs, ROMs, specific integrated circuits and other ICs are very small but they usually come in a package that is much bigger. What is the purpose of the packaging? And what are the…
yoyo_fun
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Inside a 2N3904 transistor TO-92 package

I cracked open this 2N3904 transistor. I lack the means to test its function until tomorrow. The die doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. I'm not quite sure where the silicon is. In your opinion, does the back half of the transistor…
Aaron Butkovich
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What could've killed my ESP32S MCU?

I'm making my project and I managed to kill 2 ESP32 boards. First time I thought it was just accident (me shorting 2 wires) because my cables were messy, but it happened again and the circumstances were pretty similar, so I suppose that the fist…
krystof18
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Identification of bipolar transistors on die (pnp or npn?)

is it possible to tell from this photograph whether the transistors are npn or pnp? And if so, what is the line of reasoning? How to sort that out? This photo I took is from a Sharp GP1FAV51RK0F Toslink reveiver and shows two bipolar transistors (at…
DrSvanHay
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Can Dual BJT packages be reliably used as Current Mirrors

Say I need current mirrors, can I just use Dual NPN packages? I know that if multiple BJTs are manufactured in a die, they can pretty much be guaranteed to have the same spread. Or, should I just stay away from them and just go with those that are…
Majin_Boo
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Difference between the words 'die' and 'chip'

In some articles speaking about the IGBT power modules, we can see that the word 'die' has been used for calling the semiconductor component of IGBT device. However, other articles calls it 'chip'. Similarly, the solder layer which connects the…
Albert
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What are all the tiny features on this microchip?

I've been reading some very basic introductory material on computer hardware and it occurred to me that I would like to take a look at a microchip to see the physical implementation of a simple logic circuit. I found the following image of a 74AHC00…
jl6
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How difficult is to reverse engineer a IC Die?

Can anyone tell me how difficult, time consuming and expensive is to reverse all layers of a die ? Say a die from a recent model SoC Processor IC found in smartphone devices such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC IC ? Also is it possible to de-cap…
JkT
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The usage of chip topography and diagram(schematic)?

Are you an EE? Do you use TI Op-Amps? then you should know the answer of this question. probably that could be interesting for us. If you take a look at the datasheet of TI(or a few other companies) Op-Amps you will come across with "chip…
Roh
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How can some guys discern all parts of a MCU?

Today, when I was searching for find some dies, I saw these pictures: Now I'm curious that know how can some guys discern all part of a MCU? Is there any points that I use those to discern all part of a MCU? they can discern RAM, FLASH, Clock…
Roh
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