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Apple A6 Teardown

Editing Step 8 —

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Let's start by cutting into the A6 to see what drives it.

What does the top of a metal die of the A6 processor look like? To us it looks like a Wheat Thin.

So how were these photos created, you may ask? Well, we took a picture of a Wheat Thin. Chipworks opted to go the long route:

The A6 is first decapsulated in a fuming sulfuric acid solution, heated to a temperature designed to get best results.

Then, Chipworks engineers use a microscope to take images of the die. The die is loaded onto a servo controlled X-Y table, and focus is set and maintained by laser monitoring.

Image coordinates are programmed into the system. The microscope moves the die automatically and takes several images, which are stitched together to create the full die photo.

One of the machines used for the process can be seen in the third image.

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