DJ🌞Mar 6

Hello and welcome to the first #nakeddiefriday of this spring. Today we have a family visit; I got several dies from the same manufacturer which is Starchip. I know, hardly heard of them, but they seem to make smartcard chips. They use manufacturer code 0x0081 in CPLC data.

The first on is SCF384G, dated 2010. A couple memory arrays, an area at the top where unknown things happen (probably power regulation), and a sea of gates in bottom right. There are also two smaller unbonded pads right next to it.

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Up next is SCF670H form 2012. No longer there is a large text identifying this product. Two very large Flash blocks occupy 2/3 of the chip. Below them is the sea of gates with two RAM chunks. Again, two smaller unbonded pads next to the SoG.
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The SCF400I comes next. Very similar in structure to the previous chip, there is two Siamese Flash IP blocks, a block of SRAM, and a sea of gates.
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The bigger brother, SCF512I, came out next year. The design looks exactly the same except more memory is made available.
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The final exhibit is SCF480U from 2018. Here we see a radical departure from previous designs. All blocks look dissimilar to previous exhibits, as does the fill pattern around the die. The top plated metal layer only does power routing, as seems the one below it too. There is one unbonded pad.
The top left quadrant is taken by a memory array. Top right has the usual SRAM block and the sea of gates implementing the digital logic. Bottom right seems to house voltage generators for Flash operation. Now in bottom left, there seems to be at least three separate memory blocks. I am not sure why.
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And that's about it for this issue, dear friends. A lot of images with not a lot of analysis. I hope that's okay.

As you might have noticed, I have a particular interest in #smartcard chips. :-) And I always appreciate donations. ;-) Whether you send in your old SIM cards or grab some from "gold recovery" lots on eBay, everything is welcome. Or you can also join my Patreon so I can buy them myself.

On that positive note, thanks for looking at my images and I hope to entertain you again next Friday. Have a nice rest of the week!

Mar 6 at 10:40amWeb