Ever taken an Intel Atom CPU apart? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Madsaaby
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 12:18:01 am
content: Hey GuysI had a dead motherboard laying around which I was about to throw away.So I thought it would be interesting to take a look inside the CPU itself.I heated the puppy up with a hot-air gun, and lifted the CPU of the MB. And carefully broke of the fanout board from the core itself while applying heat with a blowtorch.I ground the CPU on 1800c sandpaper with a glass plate underneath for a short time, to get a nice surface as of pic 1.I discovered that the copper interconnect layers, and dye itself was so ridiculously thin that it was impossible to control the grinding this way (pic 2 and 3).So I took a tiny peace of sandpaper, and bend it to get a sharp point which I could use to grind down more where it needed to. I finally, at the very last layer, managed to get (almost) the whole dye visible.It looks very fascinating if you haven't seen the guts of a CPU before.(The pictures are not the best, but bear with me, it's not easy to focus on such a thing, while getting the right angle of both (a very bright!) light, and camera at the same timeWHILE KEEPING THE CORRECT TONGUE ANGLE !)Hope someone find this interesting, at least I had fun with it- Mads

author: ablacon64
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 02:30:17 am
content: It's amazing! Thanks for the post!

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 04:57:02 am
content: I must photograph the IBM core I have decapped then.........

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 08:25:18 am
content: The different colours you see are due to diffraction effects; at 45nm feature sizes, many times smaller than the wavelength of light, even a light microscope won't let you see the individual transistors and interconnects.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 04:45:34 pm
content: Guess you'll need one of these

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 08:16:15 pm
content: Quote from: T4P on September 03, 2012, 04:45:34 pmMy wife wants one of those.I told her I'll build her one, I have started drawing up plans using sections of flanged drainpipe that I plan to weld together. I'm planning it so it can be torn down, maintained etc.. inmanageable sections. I hope to use a gun from an old black and white TV or O'scope, don'tknow which is best yet. I have know idea what to expect from it, I'm still planning and researching.I do hope to make one for less than a $million lol...

author: Madsaaby
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 10:33:12 pm
content: Quote from: T4P on September 03, 2012, 04:45:34 pmHeh, is that an Electron Microscope ? :O

author: krenzo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2012, 10:49:14 pm
content: If you want to see more high resolution images of the insides of chips,look here.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2012, 02:43:03 am
content: Quote from: Madsaaby on September 03, 2012, 10:33:12 pmIt isQuote from: codeboy2k on September 03, 2012, 08:16:15 pmVery expensive these things

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2012, 04:46:17 am
content: Best guns are not from a CRT, but a car headlamp that you break open. You need a very robust heater, preferably a short one that you can run at 5A or so.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2012, 08:38:36 am
content: Quote from: codeboy2k on September 03, 2012, 08:16:15 pmSomeone has actually made a SEM for quite a bit less than that:http://benkrasnow.blogspot.ca/2011/03/diy-scanning-electron-microscope_26.html...although its resolution isn't high enough to be used for chip photography.

author: Madsaaby
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2012, 10:12:54 pm
content: Quote from: T4P on September 04, 2012, 02:43:03 amNow that's not fairHehe, I don't think I should even think about the price of such a thing..

author: Madsaaby
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2012, 11:49:33 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on September 03, 2012, 04:57:02 amYea, you shouldPost a link here if you do, could be interesting to see..

author: Zad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2012, 03:07:37 am
content: Quote from: Madsaaby on September 04, 2012, 10:12:54 pmI believe Jeri Ellsworth has an electron microscope. Still in boxes, but she does have one.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2012, 03:46:29 am
content: Quote from: Madsaaby on September 04, 2012, 10:12:54 pmToo expensive for me... just googled that pictureQuote from: Zad on September 05, 2012, 03:07:37 amShe's a great engineer in most aspects, even knows to bake her own transistors!I'm not surprised though that she has one

author: arekm
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 05, 2012, 08:05:22 pm
content: Take a look in here:how to "open" IChttp://leon-instruments.blogspot.com/2012/07/jak-otworzyc-uklad-scalony.htmlopened ICs:http://leon-instruments.blogspot.com/2012/04/kolekcja-struktury-ukadow-scalonych-z.htmlhttp://leon-instruments.blogspot.com/2012/04/kolekcja-struktury-scalone.htmlhttp://leon-instruments.blogspot.com/2012/04/kolekcja-nowoczesne-struktury-scalone.htmlhttp://leon-instruments.blogspot.com/2012/07/kolekcja-prototypy-procesorow.htmlUnfortunately in Polish (so usehttp://google.com/translateif you want to read) but look at photos - these will explain how to get such nice structures (with fire).

author: Wim_L
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2012, 03:11:30 pm
content: Quote from: T4P on September 03, 2012, 04:45:34 pmExcept that it looks like a transmission electron microscope, and you'd usually want a scanning electron microscope (working using backscatter and/or secondary emission) for looking at chips. Unless you can prepare extremely thin sections of those chips, that is.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2012, 05:08:47 pm
content: It's just an rough image, not intended to be 100% accurate