De-encapsulating integrated circuits with a laser cutter

All the residue that was splattered around the circuit board from burning the epoxy off probably isn't being too kind to the laser optics, either.

If you haven't used a laser cutter before, there's a long list of materials that you're not supposed to work on. Usually because the fumes are toxic, corrosive, or otherwise damage the optics. On the other hand, it could just be a particulate mess that needs to be wiped off. Tough to tell without knowing what that black epoxy is made of.

That said, knowing that it's possible to deencapsulate an IC this way is pretty cool.

Interesting. As a point of note for those who haven't had hands-on time with a laser cutter before, there's really quite a lot of range of results that can be done when you can tune the laser power and speed. For example, I've setup a cutter to engrave wells to embed neodymium disc magnets precisely flush to the surface.

For something like this work, it'd probably be useful to setup passes that back off power and/or increase speed as the epoxy is removed. With just a little practice, I'll bet it'd be straightforward to nail down settings for a particular cutter: fast removal, getting close, and just enough power to clean up the last of the epoxy.