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.
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Are these old graphic controllers all the same die packaged by different manufacturers? [closed]
I am looking at old ISA graphic adapters that would provide a simple black and white text mode. I am trying to make the design as simple as possible and I would like to make the PCB as small as ...
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Why do fabs bother to print circuitry right up to the edges of a wafer when they know that the partial dies will be discarded later?
Around the edge of a wafer (see image below) you will observe that there are many partial dies. It seems wasteful to use the lithography machine to print these partial dies because they will be ...
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How does MOSIS let designers “share” a mask set?
In Weste and Harris's CMOS VLSI Design, they describe MOSIS as follows:
The MOSIS service [Piña02] is a low-cost prototyping service that collects designs from academic, commercial, and government ...
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What shapes can IC dies be?
I know an IC die can be cut into a rectangular shape. Apparently triangles and rhombuses are also possible, but not used. What other tesselations can they be cut into?
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Does the electrical parameters of a packaged transistor change from bare die transistors?
When comparing the electrical parameters of the MOSFET/Transistors, do they change when the package type changes? Are the parasitic parameters of the packaged MOSFET and bare die MOSFET change.
It is ...
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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), ...
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CPU die: does it have in-die wires on single side of both?
Internet search finds single vs double sided memory, here discussions are about Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for singe vs double sided. I'm interested to know if e.g. Intel processors, as they are ...
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Silicon die on Peltier device with COB wirebonding
I have a camera sensor (bare die) that must go on a very tiny PCB that also contains electronics for data serialization that dissipate enough power to make the PCB pretty hot (40-60 deg. C). I want to ...
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Modelling ESR of a parallel plate capacitor
I am trying to model a parallel plate capacitor (on die capacitor generated using metal plates.)
I know the capacitance per unit area, and metal sheet resistance. No knowledge of the dielectric.
I ...
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Is there a common ballpark estimate for the percentage of an IC package that is taken up by the die?
Not a very technical question but I'm interested in finding out the average size of a 3-axis accelerometer die. I’m finding that the smaller package sizes are around 2x2x1mm, is there a way of ...
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Help identifying a decapped IC chip [closed]
I have a 24 pin IC chip that was soldered onto a tiny PCB. I was able to decap the chip and read the label, but I am not finding any information through Google.
Does anyone recognize this label that ...
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When should bare die be used instead of QFN/BGA packages?
I have no experience with bare die as a package, and I have been recently tasked with deciding between bare die, BGA, or QFN package for a SoC.
Searching the internet, I have not really found much ...
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What electrode material can I use for electrical discharge machining? [closed]
Can I use an electrode made of melted soldering wire in electrical discharge machining (EDM) instead of copper or graphite? I think it is very easy for me to make electrode by using melted soldering ...
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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 ...
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Can an integrated circuit package contain more than one die?
I always see illustrations like the following one:
In the examples I saw always a single die from a wafer is inserted into an IC package. Is this always like this or can an IC include more than one ...
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Difference between the words 'die' and 'chip' [closed]
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'. ...
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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 ...
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Problems with doping semiconductor materials in 7nm technology
As you know, semiconductor technology is going to reach 7nm lithographic precision soon. Which means that the smallest segment length on a semiconductor die can be as short as 7nm. After making some ...
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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 ...
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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):
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How do I attach my MEMS device to a PCB? I do not have access to a die bonding machine
I want to connect the MEMS device electrically to a PCB through Au wire bonds. I have designed the PCB for the MEMS device to mount on. I would like to know if there is any way I can align and bond my ...
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How much of a CPU die surface is taken by cache memory in modern microprocessors?
I am interested in how much of the surface of a modern or older CPU's are taken by cache memory ?
Are there any statistics regarding the size that cache memory takes in CPU dies of today ?
Are the ...
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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 ...
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How large can the working die size in a wide PDIP package be?
What is the maximum die size for a 0.6" wide Plastic DIP package?
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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 ...
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Can dual BJT packages be reliably used as current mirrors?
If I need current mirrors, can I just use dual NPN packages? I know that if multiple BJTs are manufactured on one die, they can pretty much be guaranteed to have the same spread.
Should I just stay ...
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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 ...
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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/...
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