Chip Reverse Engineering

Microscope

Thanks to Karsten Nohl presentation at Hacker Space Fest, there's an interesting DIY approach for reverse engineering.

Now we have to find a microscope...

• Friend of Phil will lend a microscope with camera
  • not perfect but should enable us to do the first etching/abrasive steps
• We'll try to select and acquire a perfect microscope for this job.

Features

These are the features we're looking for:

• 500x magnification
• 2 MP to 8 MP camera
• Objective table to move the chip slowly (i.e. not by hand, too much shaking and imprecision)
• Reflected (incident) lighting

Feature we DON'T NEED:

• Confocal microscope (it seems, because we'll abrase/grind away the upper layers anyway and the bottom layers are opaque anyway too)

Links

• http://www.microscopesinfo.com/olympusmicroscope/
• http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.techniques.microscopy/2005-10/msg00004.html
• Comparison of different microscope imaging solutions
• Adaptor for standard cameras
• Moticam review and some tips
• ebay search for adaptators
• Custom made camera couplers

Perfect Microscope

Still selecting the right model.

Leads

• Ebay? No perfect match yet.
  • Seben SBX-5 Microscope Binoculaire+SXGA PC USB Oculaire, 1.3MP camera, objective table, 379 euros
  • DIGITAL MICROSCOPE 40-1600x ,with LCD and 3,1 MP camera, objective table, 229 euros
  • Microscope Bresser Biolux, 0.3MP camera, objective table, 129 euros
• Microscope.fr solution
  • Different leads from microscope.fr website
  • Euromex
    • Euromex XE.5627 Discussion Microscope (299 EUR)
    • Euromex AE.5175 Ball-beared mechanical stage (169 EUR)
    • either Euromex DC.3200 CMEX-3 DIGI CMOS Microscope camera (3 MP) (989 EUR) or Euromex DC.1300 CMEX-1 DIGI CMOS Microscope camera (1.3 MP) (469 EUR)
    • Total: from 937 EUR to 1457 EUR
  • Bresser
    • Bresser Trino Researcher II 40-1000x Microscope (349 EUR)
    • Included mechanical stage
    • Bresser PC MicrOcular 3 MP (289 EUR)
    • Total: 638 EUR

Poor man microscope setup

• Microscope: 640x optical Bresser Biolux
  • lent by Phil's friend
• Objective table:
  • micro-screws controlled moving plate
  • possibility to buy one: [1]
• Camera: 3.2 MP Canon Ixus V3
  • Mounting: Attached directly to the eye-piece
  • Drawback: produces round (not square) pictures (with no noticeable deformation) of smaller size/coverage than regular microscope-camera.
  • Advantage: working and free
• Camera: 0.3 MP Ulead IC Chip camera
  • Drawback: Low res.
  • Advantage: square images, adapted for the scope.

Results so far

• Req: 500x magnification or higher
  • This one goes up to 640x
• Req: 2 MP to 8 MP camera
  • The Canon IXUS is 3.2 MP
  • Will need to take more photo as just 2/3rd of the picture is usable (round pictures)
• Req: Objective table to move the chip slowly (i.e. not by hand, too much shaking and imprecision)
  • Poor man setup with micro-screws, TO DO
• Req: Reflected (incident) lighting
  • Reflected light works at lower magnification with daylight
  • Even for microscope which is designed for see-through
  • TODO: Need to buy adequate lighting. Got to test with external lighting (HB LEDs?) at higher magnification (640x)

Abrasion

• What kind of glue to use to attach the chip to solid/manoeuvrable support?
• Abrasive paste
  • such as Dialux

Software

• http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Documentation

• Is hardware reverse engineering legal?