Some old fiberoptic chips and friends

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Bob-O-Rama
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Location: Allentown, PA, USA, Earth, etc.
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Some old fiberoptic chips and friends

Post by Bob-O-Rama »

Fiberoptic receiver ( photo diode ) module with optical fiber:

Image

Corresponding fiberoptic transmitter ( laser ) module with optical fiber:

Image

Intact crystal clock chip ( the round clear thing on "springs" is the crystal, its less than 2mm in diameter ):

Image

A different clock module with crystal "removed" it was rectangular and covered up the signal processing chip.

Image

Fiberoptic transmitter module ( identical in function to the first, but newer generation )

Image

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

Bob,

Really nice images.

Where did you get these packages for the fiber optics? Note you are in Allentown, Bell Labs maybe?

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

Bob-O-Rama
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Post by Bob-O-Rama »

I do infrastructure and networking, so these are from the scrap yard. If you are accustomed to the usual wafer / integrated circuit shots they tend to be rather 2D. These are interesting in that they are very architectural: stuff piled on stuff. Especially so was the clock chip with all that going on, the entire package is 6mm long.

mawyatt
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Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Post by mawyatt »

Bob,

Also usually try and create a 3D effect with most of the chips I image, and have a few with QFN packages some larger multi-pin packages. My source has been mostly the chips I've designed or participated in the design, so fairly limited.

The quartz crystal is really interesting, especially the spring type mounting.

I've done a few and for folks that don't want them published, so these I can't show. Some of these are massive Stack and Stitch efforts which has lead me on a Fully Automated S&S System development, after the initial manual efforts :roll:

Anyway, nice images!! Keep them coming :D

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

Harald
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Post by Harald »

Hi Bob-O-Rama,
Great work. Love the two first one. The design of the circuits are just art.

Can I ask you a question?

How do you open them up? Brut force?

Keep em coming!

Thanks for sharing this electronic art :D
Kind Regards
Harald

Lier Fotoklubb / NSFF
AFIAP / CPS
BGF / GMV
http://www.500px.com/blender11

RDolz
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Location: Valencia (Spain)

Post by RDolz »

Hi Bob:

Excellent images!

Can you tell us the technical aspects: what lens, or combination of them, have you used, .... camera, magnification, etc?

Best
Ramón Dolz

Bob-O-Rama
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The Details . . .

Post by Bob-O-Rama »

I am on the lookout for ceramic packages which have a top and bottom cemented together, and then use a vice, hammer, rock, etc to violently cleave the top from the bottom revealing the innards. The violence is critical. Without the violence, it just doesn't work. :D Or the packages have a metal lid which is soldered / glued on and you just peel them off. Sometimes they get damaged and the damage is very interesting looking. Mostly its an act of carnage. Its a better fate than the landfill.

The lens is a Infinity Photo-Optical K2 Distamax + CF-3 front lens ( so ~4x with 0.2 NA @ ~100mm wd ) I got for very, very cheap. Its an incredible versatile ( and expensive if paying retail ) system which spans the entire range from astronomy to microscopy. One one extreme, its far field objective does 1:1 to infinity focus with an focal length of about 700mm. It has a range of close focus objective that cover the 1x to 12x range with 60-250mm working distances, and you can attach any microscope objective and use it as a tube lens.

The camera is a Pentax K-1. These were shot with "pixel shift" mode which composites 4 images offset by one pixel to eliminate false color from the CFA, improves the SNR by 2 stops, and most importantly improves the chroma sampling by about 2x linearly. It also uses a fully electronic shutter in this mode ( regular single shot modes only offer EFCS on the K-1 ) so it helps with vibrations. This makes a noticeable difference for sharp lenses.

-- Bob

nanometer
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Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by nanometer »

These are really interesting and well done! I like your instructions for getting them open :)

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