What is "decapping"

n. The removal of a cap, especially the enzymatic removal of a cap from mRNA vb. (present participle of decap English)

Decapping a microchip is the process of removing the protective (possibly plastic) coating of a microchip so that the actual (most likely silicon) chip itself is revealed for visual inspection of the micro circuits. This process is typically done in order to debug a manufacturing problem with the chip, or possibly to copy information from the chip.