Step 1: find the right chip
A phone board carries dozens of ICs. Power management, RF, audio codec, charging, touch controller — all of them are integrated circuits, and none of them tell you anything about storage. You are looking for exactly one.
The memory IC is the large square or rectangular package sitting closest to the SoC, usually under a metal shield that has to come off first. Two shapes to expect:
- A separate package next to the CPU. Typically 11×11mm to 15×15mm, clearly the second-biggest chip on the board. This is the common layout on budget and mid-range hardware.
- Package-on-package, stacked on the CPU. On many designs the memory sits directly on top of the SoC. The marking you can see from above is the memory part number; the CPU underneath is not visible without separating them.
If you are unsure which of two candidate chips is the memory, read both markings. Only one will resolve in a memory catalogue — the other will be an SoC or PMIC part number and will return nothing.
Step 2: read the first line, and only the first line
This is where most failed lookups come from. A memory package usually carries three or four lines of laser etching, and only the top one is the part number.
KMQD60013M-B318 ← part number, this is the one
MRK47L3 ← lot code, changes every batch
KOR 1943 ← origin and date code
Lot codes and date codes look plausibly like part numbers — same character set, similar length — which is exactly why people type them in and get nothing back. If a lookup fails, check you took the top line before you check anything else.
Some Samsung packages also carry a small SEC logo block with a short three-digit
code near it. That is a manufacturing marking, not a capacity code, and searching it will not
return a part. The full part number is still the top line.
Step 3: light it properly
Laser etching has no ink and no colour. It is a texture change, and it is invisible under the wrong light. Two rules:
- Light from a shallow angle. Hold the light source almost flat against the board so it rakes across the package surface. The characters throw tiny shadows and jump out. A ring light directly overhead does the opposite — it floods the surface and washes the marking to nothing.
- Clean the package first. Flux residue, dust and fingerprints scatter light across the etching. Isopropyl on a lint-free swab, let it flash off, then look again.
Step 4: transcribe the ambiguous characters carefully
Memory part numbers mix letters and digits with no pattern that lets you infer one from context. Four pairs cause nearly every misread:
| Pair | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| 0 / O | Zero is narrower and more oval; the letter O is rounder. On Samsung markings zero is usually slashed or squared. |
| 1 / I | The digit 1 has a serif or flag at the top left; capital I is a plain bar. |
| 5 / S | 5 has a flat horizontal top bar; S curves all the way round. |
| 8 / B | 8 is symmetrical; B has a flat left edge. |
You do not have to get this right first time. The IC checker matches on prefix, so typing the six or seven characters you are confident about narrows 16,776 parts down to a handful you can tell apart by package and capacity.
Step 5: check what the code means
Enter the code and you get the storage capacity, the package type, the physical package and — on stacked eMCP and uMCP parts — the LPDDR RAM in the same package. That is the answer you were after: what this board holds, independent of whether it powers on.
Different vendors encode capacity differently, so the string itself will not tell you at a glance. See IC code marking schemes by brand for what each prefix signals, and eMMC vs UFS vs eMCP for what the package type changes.
Common mistakes, in order of frequency
- Reading the lot code. By a wide margin the most common. Take the top line.
- Reading the wrong chip. PMIC and RF part numbers will never resolve in a memory catalogue.
- Dropping a character. Worn packages lose the last one or two. Search the prefix instead of guessing.
- Assuming the capacity from the phone model. The same model ships in several storage variants. The chip is the only reliable answer.
- Trusting a seller's label on a scrap lot. Covered in the scrap buying guide.