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Message started by topquark on Jan 4^th, 2007, 1:53am

Title: IC reverse engineering
Post by topquark on Jan 4^th, 2007, 1:53am

Hello folks

Had been musing over this for a while now..
what exactly does reverse engineering mean in the context of IC design. Does it really involve putting a new competitor's IC under micrograph, identify layout of any block, derive its schematics and analyze??!!

Are there really any job profile out there for this kind of stuff?!!
It'd be nice to hear experts views on this.

Regards,
Gau

Title: Re: IC reverse engineering
Post by ACWWong on Jan 4^th, 2007, 2:33am

In large companies stories are rife that there are groups which do this. Although this might have been the case 10 years ago, I doubt it still happens so much now due to the complicated multi-metal processes of today.
Previously I have looked at competitor chips at a probe station to identify topolgies and try to work out what was going on from a higher level point of view.... it ain't easy and to be honest little was gleaned, and I'd have been better off spending the time doing developing my own designs....
Having said this, it would be enlightening to hear if people still attempt reverse engineering on modern processes from purely looking at fabricated chips.... if somehow someone had your gds2 then thats a different story...

Title: Re: IC reverse engineering
Post by Geoffrey_Coram on Jan 4^th, 2007, 5:52am

I think there are still companies out there that, in fact, do deprocess chips to figure out how they work.

Some of this sort of work is used to determine if patent infringement has occurred.

Title: Re: IC reverse engineering
Post by qiushidaren on Jan 10^th, 2007, 6:22pm

Actually I am doing reverse engineering right now, I think for a newbie in analog IC design, reverse engineering is the first step for you to get it started.

-Terry

Title: Re: IC reverse engineering
Post by Croaker on Jan 12^th, 2007, 1:55pm

Well, reverse-engineering is what you're doing anytime you are trying to understand a design you didn't create out of the blue! ;)

Chipworks, a Nortel spin-off is a well-known reverse-eng company. I think they can basically photograph the chip and some software figures out the layout and schematics.

As Alan says, I'm not sure how big a competitive advantage it is to do this...maybe just to see if there's any big 'aha' that you're missing. I think it'd be most useful for resolving legal disputes.

Title: Re: IC reverse engineering
Post by loose-electron on Feb 1^st, 2007, 3:22pm

http://www.chipworks.com/default.aspx

See above link - It is a business, they are one of the bigger players, and a lot of quiet behind the scenes stuff happens as well.

Title: Re: IC reverse engineering
Post by xn47 on Jun 12^th, 2007, 6:28pm

I also have a reverse project right now.. I have here an attachment of double base npn transistor..