# Golden Ic Chips



## Giggi (Oct 22, 2018)

Hi guys I'm a newbie in this world. I discovered that this world is full of opportunities and at the same time full of scammers. Btw I need a little help
I found these Ic chips, are gold plated. I found that their weight is around 5 grams, so 200 units for 1 kg.
How many gold could be extracted from 1 kg of these? I need your opinion, because their cost is a little high.
Thank you guys
Have a nice day


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## nickvc (Oct 22, 2018)

Welcome to the forum Giggi.
I’d suggest telling the guys the price been asked for them, no disrespect but someone else’s yield may bear no relation to what you as a newbie can recover.


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## johnny309 (Oct 22, 2018)

They are new or soldered?
If they are new ...try to sell to people who collect them.....no acid involved.
How much gold.....between 30 to 45 mg a piece...so to 200 pieces a Kg......and the right skills.....do the math.....substract the cost of acids,hours of labour,energy costs...
P.S. do not forget about Sn(in solder in the braze.....in mixture with HNO3)....and ceramics ....Be.


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## archeonist (Oct 22, 2018)

Be in ceramics? You mean these kind of chips or all kinds of ceramic chips. i have a bunch of these, still not processed, but if there is Be (in the form of BeO) than I''ll won't crack them..


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## cosmetal (Oct 22, 2018)

I received some very good answers on my BeO inquiry at:

https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=26733

Pay particular attention to Goran's answers and the links he provided.

Peace,
James


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 22, 2018)

Assuming they have Au/Sn braze holding the lid on and Au/Si braze under the chip, and I see no reason they shouldn't, I would guess around $400-$500/kg in gold for the 24 lead package in the photo - maybe a little more, as my memory serves me. I have processed the gold from probably a literal million of those, but keep in mind that it's been about 45 years and there are about a dozen different sizes, each with a different per pound value. These packages are still used, but you rarely see them. The magnetic metal on these packages is Kovar - 29Ni/17Co/54Fe, if I recall.

In the past, I have, on several occasions on the forum, given these figures to people that were going to process a batch of these and, in every case I can think of, their results were close to my estimate.

I had a business that did nothing but remove the lids and chips from reject all-gold side braze IC packages, just like that one in the photo, then strip off all the braze and plating and replate them, for re-use by the customer. Intel was my biggest customer and AMD was probably the 2nd biggest. When I was doing those, the 40 lead was of the lowest gold value, at about the equivalent of $180/pound at a $1200 spot. The best I ran were the 16 or 18 lead ones at about $380/pound. I think they make some real small ones, say 8 lead or 10 lead, but I never ran any of those. The fewer the number of leads, the more gold per pound. The one in the photo is a 24 lead.

On a sealed package, like that one, about 60%, or maybe more, of the value is in the 2 different gold brazes, neither of which looks much like gold. The 80%Au/20Sn, under the lid, is a pasty dark gray color, especially when heated in air, and the 96Au/4Si braze is a very light yellow color. Don't figure you have all the gold unless the chip is free to slide around. This only occurs after all the gold braze under the chip has been dissolved with aqua regia.

A gallon of 67-70% nitric (diluted to about 2.5 gallons for doing this job) will dissolve about 2 pounds (900g) of base metals, like Kovar. A gallon of about 4-5 to 1 aqua regia, will dissolve about 2 pounds of gold or 2 pounds of kovar

There's not much choice on how to process these. I prefer to first dissolve all the magnetic kovar with about 30-40%, by volume, very hot nitric acid (fume hood is a MUST), and then, after fairly good rinsing, go after the plating and braze with aqua regia. Another way is to just dissolve all the metal in aqua regia. I prefer using nitric first, because there's much less aqua regia to deal with and the gold is easier to drop, since the AR isn't loaded with base metals.


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## macfixer01 (Oct 22, 2018)

johnny309 said:


> They are new or soldered?
> If they are new ...try to sell to people who collect them.....no acid involved.
> How much gold.....between 30 to 45 mg a piece...so to 200 pieces a Kg......and the right skills.....do the math.....substract the cost of acids,hours of labour,energy costs...
> P.S. do not forget about Sn(in solder in the braze.....in mixture with HNO3)....and ceramics ....Be.




I’ve never heard of beryllium in these type ceramic chips before. Only in the white ceramic as far as I know?

Macfixer01


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 22, 2018)

macfixer01 said:


> johnny309 said:
> 
> 
> > They are new or soldered?
> ...


I know they use beryllia in some assemblies, like hybrid circuit substrates, but all the white or purple packages of the type in the photo, that I've run, were alumina.


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## Old gold (Jul 4, 2019)

I suggest you stay away from them or sell them as they are, the hydrofluoric acid you need to use on them will kill you if an accident happens, it is nasty stuff and the gold in those chips is not worth it, IMO


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## snoman701 (Jul 4, 2019)

goldsilverpro said:


> macfixer01 said:
> 
> 
> > johnny309 said:
> ...



Is there a definitive test that you know of?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## johnny309 (Jul 5, 2019)

Al2O3 is common used .....but...: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide

and.... http://www.samaterials.com/beryllia-/970-beryllium-oxide-beo-ceramic-substrates.html


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## g_axelsson (Sep 8, 2019)

snoman701 said:


> Is there a definitive test that you know of?



Density, beryllia (3 kg/l) is 75% density of alumina (4 kg/l).
Heat conductivity, beryllia is close to aluminium, ten times as conductive as alumina.

Göran


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