Viewing sections of microprocessors using the microscope

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

If you are lucky to be in posession of a microscope capable of epi viewing of non transparent objects, then old computer processors can make interesting subjects. I have tried both AMDand Intel processors and have found that the best so far are Intel Xeon E5-2620 fitted to LGA2011-3 motherboards. There are three main reasons for these particular processors being favoured.

1. They can be bought for well under £10

2. The die size is over 20mm square

3. The die is soldered to the top heat spreader rather than using a heat conducting compound.

With eye protection and a folding pocket knife, you can cut the rubber seal around the perifery of the top and in doing so, will split apart the multilayered die at random. The die is fixed to the fibreglass board with a glass like substance, much harder than epoxy resin which will need to be rubbed down with a diamond file so that it does not interfere with close focussing objectives.. You can keep the file tipped so that it does not scratch the surface of the die. There unlikely to be any projecting edges around the part of the die on the top half of the processor.

I did have one die left fully on the fibreglass side of the processor when the solder failed first. With that one, I scraped off the solder and rubbed down the metallic surface with a diamond lap down to the black layer of the die and degreased that and glued it to the top of the heat spreader with epoxy. When it had hardened by the next day, I levered the halves apart and the die split nicely giving two viewable surfaces.

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