<story><title>Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)</title><url>http://www.righto.com/2014/05/reverse-engineering-tl431-most-common.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>magicalhippo</author><text>Richi&amp;#x27;s Lab[1] also contains a large number of pictures and analysis of decapped ICs. He&amp;#x27;s also documented his decapping process[2] which uses an oven rather than the dangerous acids, making it more approachable.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s all in German, but Google Translate does a good enough job that it&amp;#x27;s easy to follow.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s got a very interesting comparison of STM32 originals and clones, as well as various voltage references, 555 timers etc.&lt;p&gt;A personal favorite is the LTZ1000[3]. The die is a piece of art.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.richis-lab.de&amp;#x2F;index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.richis-lab.de&amp;#x2F;index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.richis-lab.de&amp;#x2F;decap-ofen.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.richis-lab.de&amp;#x2F;decap-ofen.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.richis-lab.de&amp;#x2F;REF03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.richis-lab.de&amp;#x2F;REF03.htm&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)</title><url>http://www.righto.com/2014/05/reverse-engineering-tl431-most-common.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rkagerer</author><text>The link on forming capacitors leads to a rather interesting old book on IC fabrication, which is still relevant for fundamentals (you can scroll up for other devices):&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;books.google.com&amp;#x2F;books?id=aByz--9D63wC&amp;amp;lpg=PA31&amp;amp;ots=ZJ3V72sLcD&amp;amp;dq=%22junction%20capacitor%22%20integrated%20circuit&amp;amp;pg=PA31#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;books.google.com&amp;#x2F;books?id=aByz--9D63wC&amp;amp;lpg=PA31&amp;amp;ots=Z...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>