New member! Also wafer question!

[feeneyeparts]

Hi everyone! I'm a new member!! A friend of mine gave me some silicon wafers and said that he didn't know how to identify them. Now, so far I haven't been able to identify them through the code on them (or at least don't know where to look). I was hoping someone would be able to give me a clue as to how to get around figuring out how old they are, what company they might have been made or used for and if there is any way of telling their worth (I know that some of the older ones and collectibles have been sold for a good chunk of change!)
Anyway, any help you could give would be appreciated!!

Thanks!

[CPUShack]

Post a pic, and we shall see

[Birdman.]

Two of the best methods are to take as good pics of dies on those wafers as you can and try to find some codes or logos on those dies with microscope.

There's quite many die shots around taken by me and others, and most wafers with higher value have some of those known dies that can be identified easily by comparing to die shots. Even in case of unknown dies photos could let us indentify what kind of devices they could be. One useful method to take pics is to scan the wafers if you don't have any camera with good enough macro capabilities.

Then many dies have some logos and/or markings that may let us identify the devices, but those are usually so small that microscope is needed to see them.

[feeneyeparts]

Wow, thanks! That's good info! And now that I know this, what magnification is usually required to be able to see the company and year of manufacturing?

[Vlasta]

I used a handheld 'scope at 600x

[feeneyeparts]

Thanks! Those seem pretty cheap and easy to come by!

[Vlasta]

Are you going to post any photos of your wafers?