SCiO Pocket Molecular Scanner Teardown
Joel_E_B 
Integrated Circuits
What teardown would be complete without a look at the electronics used inside the device? Let's see what information we could derive from the ICs found inside the SCiO.
The largest and easiest to identify IC was the Blackfin ADSP-BF512 Embedded Processor from Analog Devices.
Located next to the processor is the AS4C8M16SA from Alliance Memory, 128 Mbits of SDRAM. The other three ICs alongside the memory could not be identified.
The largest IC on the opposite side is the CC2540F256 2.4-GHz Bluetooth low energy System-on-Chip from Texas Instruments. The traces from this IC extend out to the onboard antenna.
Data Matrices
As electronics and the products they go into continue to decrease in size, so too must the marking on those devices shrink. As a result, many products, be it an IC or a molded piece of plastic, now have data matrices stamped, stickered, or even laser etched onto them. These matrices allow for lots of information to exist in a small amount of space. The SCiO was covered in data matrices, from the case that holds the SCiO, to the flat flex cable, to the ICs found within. While looking up the info contained in these did not produce any meaningful data (most of the information contained within the matrix pertains to the manufacturer and can relate to anything from the firmware that was uploaded to an IC to the batch data from a group of molded pieces), it was still fun to look up. For those who are curious, here is the data found from each matrix:
- Data Matrix Code found on the Analog Devices Blackfin IC: PF041700RU/CP-PCA0031-C-7/ 641240/6A1
- Data Matrix Code found on the ichia flat flex cable: SF421601JN/CP-MA00005-2-16/641103/921
- Data Matrix Code found on the plastic cover for the SCiO: AC50160263