Monolith pin out
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Contents
Background information
This page will cover Monolith pin out, how it functions, how to communicate with a device over it, and where to find the pads.
Monolith storage refers to any storage that is completely built into a singular PCB often in encased in plastic, for example a SD card,
They typically made up of 4 major components
- Contact pads-The external pads that connects the device to what ever it's plugged into
- Controller- Responsible for handling the communication between external devices and the internal memory
- Memory-Stores the data
- Passive components-Such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, ESD and protection Diodes
-
The only way to reasonably access the data on these devices is to solder directly to the pin on the back of the PCB by removing the plastic
and locating the correct pins to access the storage within the device,, while databases of these pinouts exist they typically
require subscriptions to services provided by ACElab or Rusolut, otherwise singular pinouts can be bought from 3rd party vendors or AliExpress
Standardized Pin out
All NAND devices should follow the ONFI standardand use the same pins, just in different locations on each device.
1. VCC,- Power
2. GND,- Ground
3. CLE,- Command latch enable
4. RE,- Read enable
5. CE,- Chip enable
6. ALE,- Address latch enable
7. WP,- Write protect
8. WE, - Write enable
9. RB, - Ready/Busy
10. D0-D7- Data lines
Steps
In this example, we will be working with a Micro Secure Digital card(SD)
1. Visual analysis of the Micro SD card
Is there any visible damage?, Is there any physical cracks?
2. Removal of material to expose pins
Unless there is serious damage to the card and the PCB is exposed,
then material must be removed in order to access the PCB,
This can be done in a few major ways such as,
Acid (chemical decapsulation) - Soaking the Monolith in Acid just long enough to remove the casing without damaging the internal PCB Learning to Decapsulate Integrated Circuits Using Acid Deposition
Laser (Laser decapsulation - Using a high-powered layer to burn away the material surrounding the die within the monolith
IC Laser decapsulation - just experimenting with decapping
Repeatable Method for Automated Decapsulation of Silver Alloy Wire Packages
CNC (computer numerical control) - Using a precisely controlled drill bit to slowly remove the external casing. Similar to Laser decapsulation but with a drill bit instead of a laser
Heat and brute force - For bigger chips, a heat source and a pair of pillars to simple remove the casing around the die will often do the job
Sanding - the use of abrasive pads such as carbon fibre abrasive pens to remove material
While standard low grid pieces of sandpaper can be used it is not recommended as it lacks precision
and makes it more likely to sand through the PCB.
The easiest and cost-effective method is sanding with an abrasive pad or pen. 3. Identification of each required Pin
The best way to identify a card a pinout is to check databases of preexisting pinouts if they include the device you're looking for
such as
- Rusolut NAND monolith database (requires an expensive subscription)
- Flash extractor forum(open but requires login)
- Ace lab database(requires expensive subscription)
- HDD guru forum(free and open)
- Badcaps forum(free but requires an account to download schematic files)
- AliExpress(pinouts can be purchased, often expensive espically if only going to be used once)
- Search the internet for the model number and the term pinout(using the "" with make most search certain search for that exact term)
- Ground(GND)- Using the multimeter continuity mode placing one probe on the casing(this is typically grounded), then touch enough pad until there is a beep
this indicates there is continuity (the two points are connected) you have now found ground - VCC(power) - Typically VCC traces are thicker than others and often on the edge of the PCB
Power up the card(if possible) then using the multimeter's voltage mode(typically the 2V setting) then place the black probe on the GND pad you found previously
and touch the red pin to each pad until the multi meter reads around either 3.3v or 1.8v (due to resistance and the quality of the multimeter it is unlikely to be exact but with 0.1-0.2v is acceptable)
this is likely the VCC pin
If the card does not power up then set the multimeter to resistance mode(Ω)(20k mode)
place the black probe on your GND pin, then using the red probe look for the pin with the lowest resistance (likely within 100Ω-10kΩ) the pin with the lowest resistance is likely VCC. - Data lines(I/0) - Due to the fact that datelines typically link directly to the internal memory they often do not show direct continuity to both GND and VCC
if a pin does not show continuity to either it is likely a data line.
Data lines typically have the resistance of around 1kΩ - 50kΩ unlike VCC which is typically 100Ω - 10kΩ and non-connected pads will typically show either extremely high resistance or an open line message(OL)
An oscilloscope or logic analyser can be used to check if it is likely a data line.
enable power by providing the power pins with either 3.3v or 1.8v depending on what you located,
place probes on each pin and look for A wave/pulsing pattern this means it is likely a dataline. - CLK/CE(clock or chip enable) - follow the same method as for datalines but instead of a wave/pulsing pattern it should be a steady square like pattern.
- Reference 1: Monolith pinout search guide
- Reference 2: Open NAND flash interface standard
- Reference 3: Robotic-OCT guided inspection and microsurgery of monolithic storage devices
- Reference 4: New Diagnostic Forensic Protocol for Damaged Secure Digital Memory Cards
- Reference 5: Case of study for in situ memory reading on damaged Multimedia Card
- Reference 6: Monolithic IC
- Reference 7: Microsoldering
These can be done with basic but often expensive tools such as a multimeter with continuity and voltage detection modes, oscilloscope and logic analysers
4. Wiring of pins to device(mircosoldering)
Once the pins have been Identified it is a case of connecting the correct pads to the flash box, either through mircosoldering 5. Data extraction
Depending on the software you are using that should direct you from this point.
Step-by-step guide with images
Insert step-by-step walkthrough with images and summary text here
Flow chart of order of operations
Insert a flow chart of steps and actions for each task (create using diagram)
Troubleshooting/tips and tricks
Fixes to any common issues that were encountered or could be easily encountered
Related Topics
Topics such as desoldering to chip off or firmware dumping for disk PCB repairs
Further reading
External references in wiki references can just be cited through the keyword link
- Rusolut NAND monolith database (requires an expensive subscription)