Espressif ESP32-S3

"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"

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

Bought 30+ USB serial converters. They claim PL2303 core and the case molding is very sturdy...but can we verify what's actually inside? 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)

Play-a-Sound's "Scooby-Doo! Where Are You" contains a Sunplus PA5280 Opening the electronics

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"

#RaspberryPiPico silicon teardown time! Board as received optical + x-ray images

Motorola MC14500 "Industrial Control Unit (ICU)," an early programmable logic device controlled via serial commands

Zoomable image: siliconpr0n.org/map/motorola/m… Decapping this chip I believe was inspired by @UsagiElectric who has some videos on it (ex: ), and I believe also provided the chip through a series of exchanges