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Title
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Quad JFET-Input High-Output-Drive uPower Operational Amplifier
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Description
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Black rectangle with with 8 metal legs
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Function
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Amplifies sound
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Identifier
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No serial number
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Country of Origin
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United States
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Part Number
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64C803K
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Date Code
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E4
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Date Created
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2004
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Other Markings
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Texas Instruments logo; CD40528E
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Manufacturer
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Texas Instruments
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Raw Materials
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Silicon
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Evidence
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To identify the type of chip I was working with, I plugged the first few numbers of the chip’s part number into the “Electronic Components Datasheet Search” on alldatasheet.com. I knew the the component was manufactured by Texas Instruments because their logo was printed on it. Using this information, I was able to narrow down the search results until I found the technical name of the chip.
When trying to find the location of the factory in which the chip was made, I first consulted a list of countries that contain Texas Instruments plants. I found a long list of locations, with hundreds of plants in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. To narrow these locations down, I googled each location and found news articles about the openings of several plants. Using these search results and the chip’s date code, I was able to rule out locations that were founded after 2004, including those in China and the Philippines. I also found an article that said the Chinese plant was built to serve customers in that area. Based on this information and the fact that Texas Instruments was founded in the United States, I was able to infer that my chip was manufactured in America. I looked for a list of Texas Instruments factories in the United States but could not find one. As such, I chose to pin the location of Texas Instruments’ headquarters (in Dallas, Texas) to my map.
To better understand the materials used to make the chip, I consulted a document released by Texas Instruments. The page, entitled “Semiconductor Manufacturing: How a Chip is Made”, details the process of making a chip, including the heating of simple sand (silicon) and the incorporation of insulated materials to separate the conducting areas of the chip.
To learn more about the chip’s manufacturing date, I used several resources, including a website called DSC that included a “Date-of-Manufacture Identification Page”. The chip has an irregular date code; it consists of only one letter and one number (E4). While I could not pinpoint a specific month, I was able to identify that the chip was created in 2004, which lines up with the publishing dates of online product reviews and the general period in which the device was manufactured.
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Curator
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Meryl Menezes
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Is Part Of
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Impact Acoustics 3-Play Video/Digital Audio Selector
