# Weird part with lots of gold



## mscrap (Feb 21, 2014)

So I realized I had lost 3 CPUs, and while looking for them I stumbled upon this in an unsorted bin of scrap.
If you have any idea what it is, please help.


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## danieldavies (Feb 21, 2014)

i'm sure that is a CPU out of a projection TV.


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## resabed01 (Feb 21, 2014)

Looking at the pen cap, it looks too small to be a DLP chip. I would say it could be the image chip out of a digital camcorder.


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## resabed01 (Feb 21, 2014)

I just Googled the part number, I guess it is a DLP chip, my mistake.

I have found some nice ceramic chips in older video cameras.


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## glondor (Feb 21, 2014)

its a tiny tiny high definition t.v.


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## mscrap (Feb 21, 2014)

Ok thanks for the info


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## Alentia (Feb 22, 2014)

This chip is not even worth processing, yield is way too low.


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## Pantherlikher (Feb 22, 2014)

I'm gonna say it's a pen cap from a Bic ball point. Probably blue ink.
But that's my old school guess.

B.S.
I have a few like this from projection TVs. Not all but a few TVs have these.


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## kurtak (Feb 22, 2014)

Dynamic is currently paying $30 per lb for DLPs - they are the only company I am aware of that has a price listed for DLPs in their processor price listing

Kurt


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## macfixer01 (Feb 22, 2014)

Here is one you may never see elsewhere. This is one of the three DLP chips from a cinema projector light engine, and it's a 2K chip (2048x1024 resolution). The latest generation are 4K or 4096x2048 resolution. The size of the 4K chip's mirrored surface really isn't very much larger, the individual pixels are just smaller.

macfixer01


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## mscrap (Feb 22, 2014)

Thanks for the responses, I like seeing how active this community is


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## NoIdea (Feb 22, 2014)

Alentia said:


> This chip is not even worth processing, yield is way too low.



Sorry, butt we are recovering gold, even a single pin is worth it.

Deano


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## Alentia (Feb 22, 2014)

NoIdea said:


> Alentia said:
> 
> 
> > This chip is not even worth processing, yield is way too low.
> ...



But, there are none... so it is not :shock:


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## goldsilverpro (Feb 22, 2014)

Alentia said:


> NoIdea said:
> 
> 
> > Alentia said:
> ...


I've never seen one of those, but, what is that yellow stuff?


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## mscrap (Feb 22, 2014)

goldsilverpro said:


> Alentia said:
> 
> 
> > NoIdea said:
> ...



The yellow stuff is gold


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## goldsilverpro (Feb 22, 2014)

mscrap said:


> goldsilverpro said:
> 
> 
> > Alentia said:
> ...


That's surely what it looks like, especially those little dots - they're probably thick if they're contact points. The lid looks gold also but there are other things it could be. The dots seem to cover about 1/2 of that particular area of the part. The lid, if gold plated, is thinner, maybe a lot thinner. 

Show us what's inside? How much does 1 part weigh? What's its dimensions? Is the lid magnetic?

Good photos, by the way.


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## Geo (Feb 23, 2014)

it also has bonding wires much like a processor chip. from my understanding, the bonding wires are gold.


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## kurtak (Feb 23, 2014)

Bonding wires & Au plating (as pointed out by others) & maybe the braze between window lid & ceramic

These are a new item on Dynamic's CPU price list ($30/lb) --- I would have to assume they had an assay done on them to come up with a payable price added to their CPU pricing --- so recovery is going to be a little over the $30 they are paying

Kurt


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## mscrap (Feb 23, 2014)

goldsilverpro said:


> mscrap said:
> 
> 
> > goldsilverpro said:
> ...



Okay, later today I will pop it open and weigh stuff for you :lol:


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## Alentia (Feb 23, 2014)

This thing weight about 40gr as I remember correctly. There are little or none bonding wires inside. Plating is very thin both on top and pins. It yields around or less of P4 processor. Top base as I remember correctly looks and feels like tungsten copper alloy.


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## Geo (Feb 23, 2014)

I understand that weights and composition varies from series to series so i went to the scrap pile and pulled some examples. i have to disagree about no gold bonding wires.
















as far as gold content, that will vary as well.


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## Geo (Feb 23, 2014)




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## kurtak (Feb 23, 2014)

Alentia said:


> This thing weight about 40gr as I remember correctly. There are little or none bonding wires inside. Plating is very thin both on top and pins. It yields around or less of P4 processor. Top base as I remember correctly looks and feels like tungsten copper alloy.



I have a couple dozen of these & they all have bonding wires - 4 rows top & bottom of the silicon chip that's inside (just like the pics Geo posted) plus the gold plating which adds up on pound lots

A company like Dynamic (which is a company like boardsort) doesn't add an item like this to their purchase price list without knowing the recovery - if they are paying $30/lb they expect that plus a profit back in recovery - I am sure they based their purchase price on an assayed lot run (I could be wrong) they have them listed with there processor pricing & they tend to pay a bit less then Boardsort for their processors --- so though they my not be the best in recovery they are not the worst ether


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## kurtak (Feb 23, 2014)

Ok - I couldn't help my self - counted the bonding wires in the one sitting on my desk & came up with 92 in this one

Kurt

Edit to say --- nice pics Geo


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## kurtak (Feb 24, 2014)

kurtak said:


> Ok - I couldn't help my self - counted the bonding wires in the one sitting on my desk & came up with 92 in this one
> 
> Kurt
> 
> Edit to say --- nice pics Geo



Opps - made a mistake here - what I did was counted one row of the dots on the ceramic plate where the bonding wires are attached to the ceramic plate & I came up with 23 dots in that row - there are 4 rows on each the top side & bottom side of the silicon chip - I then multiplied the 23 (wires) X 4 (rows) = 92 (wires) but that's only one side of the silicon chip --- so it is actually 92 + 92 = 184 (wires)

I know that will vary from chip to chip - that's just the one sitting on my desk so was handy

The point being - the gold is there --- making a wild guess I am going to say that if Dynamic is paying $30 a pound for them actual recovery should be at least $40 & maybe as high as $60 per pound --- that's with gold at $1293 which is the gold price on my current price listing

The top metal plate (that the window is mounted in) is magnetic so not sure what kind of problems that would cause in processing 

Kurt


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## etack (Feb 24, 2014)

kurtak said:


> Alentia said:
> 
> 
> > A company like Dynamic (which is a company like boardsort) doesn't add an item like this to their purchase price list without knowing the recovery - if they are paying $30/lb they expect that plus a profit back in recovery - I am sure they based their purchase price on an assayed lot run (I could be wrong) they have them listed with there processor pricing & they tend to pay a bit less then Boardsort for their processors --- so though they my not be the best in recovery they are not the worst ether



I have talked to a few large buyers and most of the time Processors are a losing money or breaking even adventure. Most buyers just buy them to get the more profitable products like your boards. They don't want processor price to make your decision in where your send your E-scrap.

Look at boarsorts.com PP prices they are break even @$85.00Lb.

Ramis almost the same way too.

Eric


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## Alentia (Feb 24, 2014)

etack said:


> Look at boarsorts.com PP prices they are break even @$85.00Lb.
> 
> Ramis almost the same way too.
> 
> Eric




Or even loose money if all you send them 256K cache processors without 512K cache in the mix. Pins in ceramic CPU are the main source of the gold.

boardsort for a reason pays $5/lb for pinless processors.


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## goldsilverpro (Feb 24, 2014)

If the gold bonding wire is .001" dia., it's worth about $0.01/inch. If .0007" dia., about $0.005/inch.


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## Goldwasser (Feb 24, 2014)

Hello GRF'rs, long time no post.

I thought I could add a little to the discussion. We actually see two different styles of DLP's at boardsort.com. In fact we recently updated our price list to reflect the different grades of DLP.

1) Ceramic based DLP's (the type the OP posted) are the more desirable style and the most common that we see. While I cannot give you actual recovery data (I am a buyer not a refiner) I can tell you that we buy these types of DLP's at $37 per pound currently. 

2) Fiber based DLP's (I am attaching a picture of a set) which only pay $6.75 currently (essentially the same price as a P4 as mentioned by Alentia). As you can see they have a considerable amount of dead metal and little to no visible plating, unlike its more prestigious cousin.

Attatchment Picture = Lower Valued Fiber DLP


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## lazersteve (Nov 29, 2015)

I missed this thread when it was first posted.

DLP ceramic cpus are definitely worth running. Yields range from 1.2 to 1.5 grams per pound depending on cpu size, debris in mix, and if heatsinks are present.

Processing time for 100 pounds is 3-5 days from scrap to gold bar..

Here are a few snapshots of how the left overs should look:

Steve


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