Ceramic boards. What should I do with them.
- Thread starter Jonmarcau
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I had similar boards from Motorola equipment, and I found that the traces were Pt (at least in my case). I haven't processed the IC's yet, so I don't have any yield data. I believe the MLCC's are also non-magnetic type.
I soaked mine in Hydrochloric long enough to remove the solder and for most of the SMD's to fall off.... I had to pick off the rest of the SMD's to have clean enough boards to process. I had to AR them for a while until the solder mask slips off, exposing the rest of the traces.
I doubt the sub-straight is Be, but I wouldn't take any chances. So don't grind them up. Again.... I don't know if yours is Pt/Pd or not, so I would just process one of each and do a stannous test.
In case you don't know... PGM's, when they are in solution are very toxic and protections need to be in place.
If you decide to test them, let us know the results.
I soaked mine in Hydrochloric long enough to remove the solder and for most of the SMD's to fall off.... I had to pick off the rest of the SMD's to have clean enough boards to process. I had to AR them for a while until the solder mask slips off, exposing the rest of the traces.
I doubt the sub-straight is Be, but I wouldn't take any chances. So don't grind them up. Again.... I don't know if yours is Pt/Pd or not, so I would just process one of each and do a stannous test.
In case you don't know... PGM's, when they are in solution are very toxic and protections need to be in place.
If you decide to test them, let us know the results.
Sorry, I forgot to click Reply so you would be notified. See above.
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Those boards are really really good.......
A couple of problems I had was them sticking together or the solder mask was still covering some of the traces. So, I wound up having to pick those out and put them in for a second round of AR. Then I combine/filtered the solution and dropped out on zinc.... That's usually as far as I go with PGM's.
Great answer. Thank you for that. I won’t process anything until I’m confident I have educated myself enough. I have just been collecting and sorting for a few years and wasn’t sure what I had here. Thanks again.
As hard as I tried to clean them up before AR, I still notice an ever so slight copper contamination during cementation. But at this point I'm okay with it, I plan (at some point) to sell the PMG blacks as is...let the experienced refiners deal with it.
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What kind of weight do you have of these boards Jon?
Any way to process them? Because there are these, then there are the ones that are covered in resin or something as is common on Fanuc boards. But short of a burn / crush / smelt, I don't know how to process them.
Don't worry about beryllium in these boards, beryllium ceramics is a LOT more expensive than alumina substrate, not only the material cost but the safety measures needed when working and handling beryllium ceramics.
As a rule, the reason of using beryllia is to cope with a lot of heat and you have beryllia between a heat source at high voltage close to a cooler to remove the heat. One exception I've seen is transmitter vacuum tubes in military radio transmitters. But that's another story.
Since these are ceramic boards and don't burn I would either remove the components by dissolving the solder with HCl or just using a hot plate. The boards with the solder mask can then be incinerated to expose the metal. No need for grinding... and that is hard on the equipment. Alumina is used as an abrasive since it is really hard.
After that, just treat it as any other copper / silver / gold / PGM on ceramic scrap. A visual inspection of the incinerated boards should give some hints about what the conductors are made from.
Test with nitric acid and see if you get a reaction. If there's something left go to aqua regia next.
Göran
As a rule, the reason of using beryllia is to cope with a lot of heat and you have beryllia between a heat source at high voltage close to a cooler to remove the heat. One exception I've seen is transmitter vacuum tubes in military radio transmitters. But that's another story.
Since these are ceramic boards and don't burn I would either remove the components by dissolving the solder with HCl or just using a hot plate. The boards with the solder mask can then be incinerated to expose the metal. No need for grinding... and that is hard on the equipment. Alumina is used as an abrasive since it is really hard.
After that, just treat it as any other copper / silver / gold / PGM on ceramic scrap. A visual inspection of the incinerated boards should give some hints about what the conductors are made from.
Test with nitric acid and see if you get a reaction. If there's something left go to aqua regia next.
Göran
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Agreed Sno. They go to a refinery, far too much hassle to do at home. When I say they are good I mean they are really good.
Good in terms of chips, or good in terms of boards? They are pretty lightweight, and usually have Pd/Ag or Au screen printed on.
Realistically, it's just another bucket that I have nothing I can do with. Not enough to send to a refinery, too much hassle to try to refine. An expensive lesson in time allocation.
