526
6 Reverse Engineering of Microcircuits
– Dismantling the source microelectronic device into separate components: In this
case, the product itself is identified, as well as its package and internal components;
– System-level analysis: Specific operations, functioning features, synchronization
signals, signal passage chains, and interconnections of elements on the chip are
examined here;
– Process analysis: Both the typical structures of a microcircuit and the types of
materials used are examined;
– Extraction of microcircuit elements: Removal of layers to the transistor level and
subsequent extraction of all elements and all components in order to recover the
scheme of the device and net lists.
6.3.2 Main Stages of Implementation of the Classic Process
of Reverse Engineering of Microelectronic Devices
6.3.2.1 Product Dismantling
Product dismantling is the first stage of reverse engineering in the field of microelectronic devices; the product is simply disassembled into parts, printed boards and
sub-modules are photographed, after which all components are entered into a special
inventory list.
On this level, reverse-engineering specialists are usually only interested in the
specific components installed in the device and the manufacturers of these components; however, certain companies use this information to draw up material lists
and perform pre-evaluation of the costs required to produce these components
independently.
Figure 6.9 shows the personal media player Apple 8 GB iPod nano, partially
opened to inspect the internal circuit board and used ICs [4]. Optical and X-ray
crystal analysis (Fig. 6.10) demonstrated that the 64 GB flash memory was actually
composed of 2 × 32 GB packages, each containing four 8 GB chips (64 GB total).
In this case, the authors of the cited work [5] suggested a detailed analysis of the
technical process of 8 GB flash memory chips, since they were the newest Samsung
and Toshiba devices at the moment.
6.3.2.2 System-Level Analysis of a Microelectronic Device
All electronic systems usually consist of hardware elements, software, firmware,
communication channels, transducers, etc. Therefore, it is plausible to perform a full
6 Reverse Engineering of Microcircuits
– Dismantling the source microelectronic device into separate components: In this
case, the product itself is identified, as well as its package and internal components;
– System-level analysis: Specific operations, functioning features, synchronization
signals, signal passage chains, and interconnections of elements on the chip are
examined here;
– Process analysis: Both the typical structures of a microcircuit and the types of
materials used are examined;
– Extraction of microcircuit elements: Removal of layers to the transistor level and
subsequent extraction of all elements and all components in order to recover the
scheme of the device and net lists.
6.3.2 Main Stages of Implementation of the Classic Process
of Reverse Engineering of Microelectronic Devices
6.3.2.1 Product Dismantling
Product dismantling is the first stage of reverse engineering in the field of microelectronic devices; the product is simply disassembled into parts, printed boards and
sub-modules are photographed, after which all components are entered into a special
inventory list.
On this level, reverse-engineering specialists are usually only interested in the
specific components installed in the device and the manufacturers of these components; however, certain companies use this information to draw up material lists
and perform pre-evaluation of the costs required to produce these components
independently.
Figure 6.9 shows the personal media player Apple 8 GB iPod nano, partially
opened to inspect the internal circuit board and used ICs [4]. Optical and X-ray
crystal analysis (Fig. 6.10) demonstrated that the 64 GB flash memory was actually
composed of 2 × 32 GB packages, each containing four 8 GB chips (64 GB total).
In this case, the authors of the cited work [5] suggested a detailed analysis of the
technical process of 8 GB flash memory chips, since they were the newest Samsung
and Toshiba devices at the moment.
6.3.2.2 System-Level Analysis of a Microelectronic Device
All electronic systems usually consist of hardware elements, software, firmware,
communication channels, transducers, etc. Therefore, it is plausible to perform a full