Decapsulating a plastic packaged IC with hot sulfuric acid
Channel: Robert Baruch
Date: 04/10/2019

My procedure for decapsulating a plastic packaged IC using hot sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid is 98% concentrated (i.e. azeotropic), and heated to 200 degrees C. Then the chip is left in the flask for 10 minutes at that temperature, then allowed to cool. This is sufficient to dissolve/dehydrate/oxidize the plastic package and leave the die remaining.

I wash the die with distilled water, and optionally acetone, although I'm moving away from that and just trying compressed air.

And yes, I know the slope-sided container is a flask, not a beaker :)