# Recovering gold from eproms



## firedan525 (May 15, 2007)

Ive got a bunch of small eproms that had a gold plate on the top. I removed the top and placed them with all the other gold plates I'm saving for the cell, now what to do with the bodies. They have gold in them, and I trimmed the (legs) as much as I could but how can I recover these without having to dissolve all the trash metals? Any ideas? Thanks again. DAN

Also should I remove the center before refining and save for any reason?


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## lazersteve (May 15, 2007)

Dan,

I've had excellent results using acid-peroxide to remove the die from ceramic chip housings. Here's some examples of dies I've removed from ceramic housings with this method. :








It takes some time, but I'm confident you can achieve these results with those eproms if your willing to wait it out.

If you just want them stripped of surface gold quickly give them a bath in AR for a short time and you will get the exposed gold foil. It's possible the AR won't remove the dies from the housings, I haven't tried AR on them myself. Grinding them to a fine powder will asure the best gold leeching if you go with AR, but you will destroy the dies.

Both methods listed above will dissolve the trash metals. The first will not attack the gold so aggressively, so the gold should remain in foil form.

Steve


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## firedan525 (May 15, 2007)

Great idea thanks Steve. What is in the DIE's that can be of any value?


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## lazersteve (May 15, 2007)

It's the actual circuit inside the chip. The part that looks like glass. It has no real value, but I'm saving mine up for a mosaic piece of art. Most people just crush them, run thru AR, and pitch the scraps.

Steve


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## firedan525 (May 15, 2007)

Hey how about me sending you mine when I get them off? There yours if you want them.


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## lazersteve (May 15, 2007)

Sound good to me!


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## toadiesop (May 16, 2007)

Yes, silicon, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_chip

Not worth anything really, the "chip" I mean..... but they are what sparked my curious 7 year old mind (1983) when I started taking apart EVERYTHING I could get my hands on (much to the dismay of my mother) :twisted: 

I miss the ICs with the windows on them.. obviously I come across them all the time, but I miss that..... amazement and "confussion" as a kid... what the heck is that????

All I can add to this thread now is if there is a "grey sandwiched" layer between the chip, hit it with a hammer. 75% of the time I get the gold plated silicon chip.

And once again I forget who posted about the 94-96 Rockwell chips from modems... I've hammered apart 5 or 6 of them and the hybrid CBs all look different in circuitry but similar in manufacturing process. Any more info on those?

I'm a d**Khole for not having my camera with me at all times. I assure you this changes now....

I'm going out to the garage.... I'll smash some stuff and take pics I promise!


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## firedan525 (May 16, 2007)

sweeeeeeeeet. Smash away.


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## lazersteve (May 16, 2007)

toadie said:


> And once again I forget who posted about the 94-96 Rockwell chips from modems... I've hammered apart 5 or 6 of them and the hybrid CBs all look different in circuitry but similar in manufacturing process. Any more info on those?



Toadie,

I'm the one who posted that one, I updated it once, but not with any yield data yet.

So much to do, so little time...

Steve


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## fafrd (May 22, 2007)

i have a bunch of the ones with windows in them then i have a whole bunch without windows i've broke a few open and their is a piece of metal silver in color square in shape does any one know what these are ? and the one with windows are they worth saving?


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## lazersteve (May 22, 2007)

They are usually quartz.


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