# PMs in IC's of BGA Packages



## börki (Aug 2, 2011)

Dear all,
as this is my first post I want to thank you for this great forum and your efforts sharing this overwhelming informations. My apologies for my english. It is not my native language. I'm located in Germany.

I signed in months ago, try to read and learn as time allows. I started with first little experiments and I'm afraid I have to come back with questions at given points.

Nevertheless I want to share my data as a marginal contribution to this forum. I noticed there are very different data on PM content of IC's in plastic packages. 

Last year I got back results a batch of BGA Chips I gave to a professional refiner. Please see picture and the result. Batch was pure not mixed with other IC's.

Chips are squarish with 6x6 mm edge length. 1 chip has a weight of 0.06 g.
On the picture you can see that every chip has 64 so called solder balls.

Although data of refiner are in german I think they are easy to understand.

Original batch weight was 24 kg. After inciniration 18.1 kg material left.
Contents of material left: Gold 1.146 %, Silver 0.715 %. 

Assaying and refinig cost were 399 EUR. Refiner pays me 98% of gold and 72 % of silver.

I have similar data with a second batch. So data given are obtained from 100 kg of refined IC's.

This kind of IC's are to be find in e.g. cell phones. Doing the power management, audio and camera funcions. Picture shows IC's build in Motorola ZN5. 

Summarized data on BGA Chips with 64 solder balls in a 6x6mm package:
Organic content: 25%
Au content: 0.865 %
Ag content: 0.539 %
Refining costs: 20 Euro/kg

Perhaps there is someone who can use this data for estimation of PM contents of similar chips.

Thank you for this great forum.


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Aug 2, 2011)

Welcome, Herr Börki!!!!!!!,nice post.

Gott segne Sie

Manuel


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## Claudie (Aug 2, 2011)

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for sharing the results with the rest of us.


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## samuel-a (Aug 2, 2011)

Nice. Thanks for that info.

And welcome aboard.


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## dorki22 (Aug 6, 2011)

Thank you borki(I dont know how to get those two dots on o :roll: )

Is it possible to give us some contacts or at least a name of the company? Germany is much closer to my country then US, and costs are always an issue.

Mfg,Simon


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## börki (Aug 6, 2011)

Hello Simon,

you're welcome.

Meanwhile in Germany it is more difficult for private persons. That's the reason why my current batch of 100 kg stucks because my refiner does not accept material from private persons any more. 
It's a pitty as he also accepted small batches. There are also brokers, but I don't sell them anything. Best offer I got from them were 10 % of the gold value. 

If you are a company and not located in Germany it is much more easier to find a refiner. You can google for e.g. AMI Doduco or RECOM.
Conditions should be similar. But you need at least 100 kg and a tax ID number.

Furthermore I don't know whether they are doing the whole jobs themselves. It seems to be that they forward the batches to a smelter after some pretreatment and analysis.
If you are a bigger player one smelter in Germany is Norddeutsche Affinerie or you can contact e.g. UMICORE in Belgium directly. 

BR - Börki


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## dorki22 (Aug 6, 2011)

Hi borki.

Thanks for your help. This is very bad news for me due to the fact Im just as you - no bussines, just old school private collector. Looks like goverments in EU wont allow no private - companies bussiness any more. Taxing is main goal I guess. Thats just sad. Its very hard to get steady supply to open bussiness, so I see no point in taking such a bussiness adventure for just one time shipment.

There is tons of info on this great forum how to get PM out of scrap, but there is an enviromental problem - burning the stuff is very nasty. I live in an urban enviroment so this is a big problem.

Just have to find someone with a suitable furnace and pay him to burn my scrap. Whats left can be done at home.

Simon


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## arthur kierski (Aug 6, 2011)

the numbers given by Borki match (are very similar) with the numbers that i obtained from refining these same types of chips----thanks Borki for sending these numbers to the forum
regards to all,
Arthur


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## börki (Aug 6, 2011)

@Simon
Last week I had a talk to company doing recycling of plastics like PMMA, PET and PVC and so on.
They meant that they are allowed to burn plastics in their plant. Perhaps this is an idea to search for where you live.


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## TechCF (Aug 13, 2011)

Thank you for posting the numbers. I have had some luck selling board fingers and pins, and just started to pull BGA chips from the boards I am going through. Many boards are flexible enough that you can just pull the chips off the board not having to use hot air soldering iron. The numbers are really helpful.


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## Claudie (Sep 1, 2011)

Would the Silver content be from the solder?


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## börki (Sep 3, 2011)

it is most likely that solder is main source of Silver here.

Please see two PDFs attached. These are for similar BGAs (only 49 solderballs!).


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## samuel-a (Sep 3, 2011)

Those RoHS documents are amazing.

wish all companies were so complient...

Take a look at the mold compound composition before you incinirate stuff... pretty nasty stuff there.


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## börki (Sep 3, 2011)

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds are formed on incinaration.
I wouldn't do it without propper set-up. Not at home, not in Africa, not in India, ...


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## Claudie (Sep 3, 2011)

Here is another PDF file that explains the packages well. 
http://www.fainstruments.com/PDF/istfa99.PDF


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