F160B3 Print
Written by Robo   
Saturday, 18 April 2009 17:04

The F160B3 (or, more specifically, the GT28F160B3BA110 (who makes up these names anyway?)) is a 16 Mbit flash chip made by Intel. I found it in an old mobile phone, where it was used to store the phone's main program and probably some user data as well.

F160B3

A view of the top-left corner. Like any memory chip, the layout is dominated by a huge square grid of identical circuit elements. The left side shows a couple of control circuits that drive the memory and connect it to the outside world.

F160B3

The opposite corner. Note how specs of dirt become really obvious at this level of magnification...

F160B3

A closer look at the control circuits. All probably computer-generated digital hardware.

F160B3

When we zoom in a bit more, we find the manufacturer's name, copyright date and part number. Oddly, it's called 38F160B3 rather than 28F160B3 here.

F160B3

A close-up of a memory block. Not much to see here, because of the extreme density of wiring required for squeezing sixteen million transistors on a few square millimetres.

F160B3

I found this funny structure along the left edge. These wavy lines may be part of a very big transistor that's used to drive a lot of current, perhaps for switching power to a certain section of the chip.