# Microsemi gold IC chips



## Bjewell (Mar 4, 2017)

I have a bunch of microsemi integrated circuit chips. They are considered ASIC chips. Can anyone tell me if they contain gold or not. I can't seem to find out for sure I've cut one open and couldn't see any gold but it's such a tiny chip.. only 10 legs.

I tried to contact microsemi the chips manufacturer directly but they don't seem to want to help unless I'm buying stuff from them.


Edit: I cracked one open.. there's something there.. silver maybe? Not sure what it is but it's a silver/Platinum colour. And it sparkles! Pics added. What is this?!


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## patnor1011 (Mar 5, 2017)

What you see is broken Si wafer. To see if there are gold bonding wires you need a good magnifying glass or incinerate couple, wash and pan.


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 5, 2017)

Yellow is gold. If the pad underneath the chip is gold plated (yellow), it is probable that a gold braze was used to attach the chip.


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## Bjewell (Mar 28, 2017)

Now that looks like gold


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## patnor1011 (Mar 29, 2017)

It may be gold plated. You are focusing on wrong things here. What you need to do is to incinerate couple of them till all black stuff is white and powdery and then use gold pan preferably black and try to find out if they do have gold bonding wires. Panning and/or good magnifying glass will help you determine if there is value inside or not.


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## upcyclist (Mar 29, 2017)

What Pat is trying to tell you is that any gold plating on the legs may not even be economical to recover--the real money is in the solid gold bonding wires.


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## Silencetriedgood (Apr 11, 2017)

upcyclist said:


> What Pat is trying to tell you is that any gold plating on the legs may not even be economical to recover--the real money is in the solid gold bonding wires.



Any chance you have a link or know of one that shows chips vs gold contents?


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## kernels (Apr 11, 2017)

Silencetriedgood said:


> upcyclist said:
> 
> 
> > What Pat is trying to tell you is that any gold plating on the legs may not even be economical to recover--the real money is in the solid gold bonding wires.
> ...



That is a very loose question, but this thread is about the best http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=22951


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## Silencetriedgood (Apr 12, 2017)

kernels said:


> Silencetriedgood said:
> 
> 
> > upcyclist said:
> ...




Loose it was, but you definitely have me my answer. Tyvm. I'm just getting into processing. Trying to learn from others trial and error as much as I can honestly. Was just trying to see different gold contents to various types of chips.


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