John McMaster Profile picture
Feb 25, 2022 7 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Play-a-Sound's "Scooby-Doo! Where Are You" contains a Sunplus PA5280 ImageImageImage
Opening the electronics ImageImageImage
PCB has a Chip on Board (COB). These are common in high volume electronics manufacturing to reduce costs. Unfortunately this means there are no package markings ImageImage
I cut the COB out of the PCB to save on decap time. Apparently I nicked the die corner though Image
Bare die. Aluminum bond wire nubs can be seen if you look carefully around the padframe

I plucked bond wires by using foam swabs to catch the wires and fatigue them until they broke off Image
Chip markings. I couldn't find references to this chip, although I didn't look too hard ImageImage
Quick floorplan guess Image

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More from @johndmcmaster

Jul 7, 2024
After years of gathering parts, I finally got a pair of Motorola Sectel 9600s to make a secure call! This version is a "type 4" civilian version of the STU-III secure phone that (was?) used for classified communications
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I love them because they have literal "encryption keys." Makes every use of encryption feel like you are launching an ICBM

(source: ) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ksd-…
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Unfortunately these CIKs are very hard to get. But check out this talk if you want to see some early attempts I made at cloning them:
Read 4 tweets
Feb 4, 2024
Espressif ESP32-S3
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"ESP32-S3 is a low-power MCU-based system on a chip (SoC) with integrated 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE). It consists of high-performance dual-core microprocessor (Xtensa ® 32-bit LX7), a low lower coprocessor, a Wi-Fi baseband, a Bluetooth LE baseband, RF module, and numerous peripherals"
High resolution zoomable image: siliconpr0n.org/map/espressif/…
Read 6 tweets
Jul 5, 2022
How we fixed EDS (elemental analysis on SEM)

Background: EDS works by measuring x-rays emitted after an electron strikes and fluoresces an atom. Each element has characteristic wavelengths it emits allowing an element to be identified via spectroscopy
Copper is a great calibration target as it has a few distinct wavelengths it omits. We used OFHC from an old high vacuum gasket
Initially the software wasn't getting enough x-rays. The main issue was we weren't close enough to the sample in the chamber, although we exacerbated the problem by attaching an oscilloscope (caused reflections / corrupted data coming in)
Read 9 tweets
May 22, 2022
Bought 30+ USB serial converters. They claim PL2303 core and the case molding is very sturdy...but can we verify what's actually inside? ImageImage
Branded Trulink 26887. Came in lots of 10

Instructions mention up to Windows 7 which dates them to maybe roughly 2010 (Windows 8 came out in 2012) ImageImage
At their core two chips are marked:
-Prolific PL-2303HX: USB to TTL serial converter
-Zywyn ZT213lEEA: 5V RS232 transceiver

Date codes appear to be 1251 => late 2012. This is roughly consistent with the OS guess since Windows 8 would have been young Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 25, 2022
Atmel AT29035 from LiftMaster SECURITY+ garage door opener
Seems to be an unusual part number. I can find product change notifications but not a datasheet. Package markings (125C0218) seem to be remarked for vendor "R"
Wonder why this chip was underfilled?
Read 10 tweets
Jan 29, 2021
#RaspberryPiPico silicon teardown time!
Board as received optical + x-ray images
Inspecting package. X-ray shows bond wires easier after removing thermal slug
Read 20 tweets

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