Turn the device to the back, and locate the small screw holding the card reader in place. Remove the screw using a T6 screwdriver bit.

Slide the outer shell downwards all the way to reveal the card reader.

Unplug the Type-C port on the card reader, and set it aside.

With the card reader removed, locate the 9 screws around the device, and remove them using a T10 screwdriver bit.

Using a spudger or opening pick, carefully pry around the sides of the device. You should hear clicks as you work your way to each corner.

Carefully open up the device (this may require some force).

Locate the fan connector on the PCB of the device.

Disconnect the fan, then place the outer case aside.

We're finally in! To take a look at the brains of the device, locate the heatsink.

Unscrew the 4 large screws holding the heatsink in place with your T6 screwdriver bit (these screws are equipped with springs, so they'll stay attached to the heatsink even when fully loosened).

We've made it to the core architecture! The device is powered by a Qualcomm QCS610 running Android 10, with 32GB of eMMC storage (SanDisk SDINBDA4) and 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM (Samsung K4UBE3D4AA-MGCL).

If you'd like to remove the power cable for the card reader, locate the 2 screws toward the bottom of the device. Remove these with your T6 screwdriver bit.

Slide the cable up to unplug it from the integrated Micro-USB port on the PCB.

Above the brains of the device, locate the black FPC connector shield. Remove the 2 screws on both ends using your T6 screwdriver bit.

Remove the shield and set it aside. Then, disconnect all 4 connectors found on the PCB.

Locate the camera toward the top of the device (it looks like a silver square). Remove the 3 screws with your T6 screwdriver bit.

Pull the camera out! This palm scanner uses a camera sensitive to near-infrared light at 850nm, which allows it to capture an image with the bright infrared LEDs that we'll discover later! Inside the camera assembly is a dichroic linear polarizer, which is used together with the LED assembly to capture surface and venous layers of the palm.

Toward the top of the device, where the camera was seated, locate the 6 screws holding the PCB in place. Remove these using your T6 screwdriver bit.

Carefully lift the PCB and set the device aside. We'll be taking a look at the actual imaging assembly now!

As you can tell, the palm reader uses an IR optical filter window to block visible light while allowing near-infrared light through, hence the dark tint. There's also a square cutout that lets a visible light camera peek through, which allowed for scanning QR codes (among other things)!

To remove the speaker on the imaging assembly, locate the 4 screws holding the module in place, and remove them using your T6 screwdriver bit.

Find the connector that connects the speaker to the PCB and unplug it.

Remove the speaker! The speaker wasn't used very often by the palm scanner, and it's unsure why it even exists. My personal guess is that it was most likely included in the final product in-case Amazon planned to utilize it in the future... or perhaps it's used for accessibility if headphones aren't available?

Flip the imaging assembly over, and locate the 4 screws holding the rectangular cradle in place. Remove them using your T6 screwdriver bit.

Carefully remove the cradle and the rubber boot (which prevents light leakage), being sure not to touch the polarizers (the 4 plastic films).

We’ve made it to the LED assembly! The palm reader consists of 14 infrared LEDs (850 nm), which are grouped as top/bottom and left/right. Near-infrared light is used because it can pass through skin and is strongly absorbed by hemoglobin in the blood, essentially meaning it'll help the camera see the veins better!

A diffuser and polarizer are placed over the LEDs; however, the top and bottom emitters use a linear polarizer oriented in one direction, the same direction as the camera's polarizer, while the left and right emitters use a linear polarizer oriented at 90° to that, so each group illuminates the palm with orthogonal polarization states.

These LEDs flicker between the top/bottom and left/right groups to stay synchronized with the camera shutter, which allows the palm reader to capture two images at the two different lighting states very quickly.

Thanks to these criss-crossed polarizers and LED groups switching, the camera can achieve 2 photos: one photo of the palm's surface details, and one photo highlighting the vein structure!

Fun Fact: If you flip the cradle over and point it towards an LCD screen, you can see how the polarizer works! Pretty fascinating.

Locate the rubber boot at the center of the PCB, and carefully remove it from its sockets.

If desired, remove the 2 screws holding the FPC cable in place for the visible light camera using a T3 screwdriver bit, and unplug the connector. This FPC cable connected the visible light camera to the device.

We've now reached the visible light camera! As mentioned earlier, this camera is used for scanning QR codes, but it is also used to determine the pose of the hand and guide the palm to have it centered.