Friend of mine got bunch of Elantec EL2252A chips from secondary market during his 3458A repair process. They looked little bit suspicitions, so I’ve ended up with these chips for a deeper investigation.

Chip has bit sanded surface and lasered marking, which might be indication of counterfeit chip. Marking on the surface is

e 2215E
EL2252CM
BFU

Let’s see what’s inside?

Back of the chip shows stamped logo with “MALAYSIA” lettering. and 218 or 812 code.

Heating chip up to +500 °C made epoxy bit soft and mechanical negotiation with pliers got the silicon chip die out. With help of Zeiss Axiotron we can investigate the structures on the surface.

There are some markings, such as elantec in the center, date of mask design 1989, EL2252A partnumber and #8-4BH text.

DIC mode reveals surface texture of the chip a bit more. There are some marks at the edge of the die displaying mask/layers labels.

Zooming in show better features close-up.

Based on this it’s highly likely that this chip is legit genuine Elantec EL2252A chip, despite sketchy outer marking/surfacing.

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