Looking inside a vintage Soviet TTL logic integrated circuit

1 · Ken Shirriff · March 16, 2020, 4:15 p.m.
This blog post examines a 1980s chip used in a Soyuz space clock. The microscope photo below shows the tiny silicon die inside the package, with a nice, geometric layout. The silicon appears pinkish or purplish in this photo, while the metal wiring layer on top is white. Around the edge of the chip, the bond wires (black) connect pads on the chip to the chip's pins. The tiny structures on the chip are resistors and transistors. Die photo of the Soviet 134ЛА8 (134LA8) NAND gate integrated circuit...