[stella] Self-cleaning ovens (was Thrust 1.0)

Subject: [stella] Self-cleaning ovens (was Thrust 1.0)
From: "John Saeger" <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 16:51:04 -0700
Chris Wilkson wrote:

> We had some limited success.  The person who does acid dipping
> went home at
> 5, so we couldn't "do it right".  So we had to saw/grind the plastic case
> away.  Everything was great, but then...we found out that the back of the
> case wasn't smooth...we polished away a quarter of the die!  (Yet, the
> opposite corner still had plastic over it.)  So...

Hmmm...  I wonder if there is some temperature at which the plastic will
melt/burn but not destroy the silicon and whatever other metals are used
between the layers of the chip?  I mean solder will melt first but other
than that the chip might still be O.K.  Hmmm... I wonder what happens if you
put a plastic I.C. in a self-cleaning oven during the cleaning cycle...

> For those of you unfamiliar with the process, what I'll do is polish away
> the circuitry, layer by layer, taking photos as I go.  It looks like it
> maybe on the order of a micron per layer.  Then the *hard* work begins...
> assembling a schematic from the photos.  Ouch!  At least there seem to be
> relatively few layers.  Oh...and not many transistors...I'm guessing a
> couple thousand-ish?

That's probably a pretty good guess.  Maybe even smaller than that.  Maybe
less than a thousand.  But I'd sure like to see some of the pictures.  Oh
well, I guess I can wait for the touch controllers a while longer.  Good
Luck!

John


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