Ceramic CPU gold plated Lids

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Here is an updated version of your previously posted picture with arrows indicating exactly where the nickel is peeling off of the Au. No where do I see any Au peeling off the top of nickel.

lids_nickel_ontop.png

Steve
 
I took a few minutes to record a quick video demonstrating the nickel layer over Au verse Au over nickel. Sorry about the poor quality of the phone video, I did not do any editing on the raw video. All of the lids in this video have been stripped once already, these are leftovers.

Multilayer CPU lid Demonstration

I hope this clears up any confusion about the leftover unstripped lids in your pictures.

Steve
 
It does more than that- I've just gone out and looked closer at them in light of the video and yes you're right the gold is under the Nickel. We live and learn. Fair play Steve. I'm wrong.

Jon
 
No worries, I was merely trying to share some insight that I learned several years back. I have seen all sorts of manufacturing anomalies that surprised me when I found them. I won't get into some of the others I have found, but they are intriguing to say the least. When you process thousands of pounds of gold lid ceramic cpus in a year by hand, you tend to see so oddball stuff if you pay attention closely. I have destroyed several chips that would drive a collector crazy, except for the fact that you would never know the cpu was a misfit, until you began processing it, then it's too late.

Overall, I enjoyed the back and forth and it resulted in a learning experience, that is what matters to me. Maybe this discussion will prompt some members to now go back and check out the lids they may have incompletely stripped and find a few more grams of Au.

What the purpose of the inner layer is? I have no clue, perhaps a CPU manufacturing worker or plating expert can chime in and enlighten us as to what the extra layer is for. My guess is that these lids are plating mistakes, that ended up getting replated to bring the plating up to manufacturing standards.

Steve
 
Topher_osAUrus said:
That is intriguing to say the least!

I wonder how they do it?
Even more of a curiosity is why they do it?
Click to expand...
How is easy, the real question is why?

I can't imagine any technical reason to plate gold - nickel - gold at all. I've been thinking about it for a while and the only reason I could come up with was a failed plating process. Just throw the rejects back with fresh lids for a nickel + gold plate, so the ones rejected in the first batch becomes dual layer plated lids.

To be fair to Jon, some of the lids that came out with the gold intact was still on the first layer. It's obvious by the printing still on the surface. If the gold is thick enough and not scratched up it would protect the base metals under the gold and go through the process unaffected.

In any case, dual layers or just thick gold, it's easy to sort through the lids and remove the ones that still have gold. Those can always be processed again after receiving some scratches or fully dissolved in aqua regia.

Nice thread, I've learned something new today. Thanks to all who contributed! :D

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
Topher_osAUrus said:
That is intriguing to say the least!

I wonder how they do it?
Even more of a curiosity is why they do it?
Click to expand...
How is easy, the real question is why?


Nice thread, I've learned something new today. Thanks to all who contributed! :D
yes, indeed!
Göran
Click to expand...


Im sorry Göran, I hate to be that guy..
-Already learned something for today and being greedy, wanting more!
-I haven't found anything fruitful on my searching for how to plate nickel onto gold. Only gold onto nickel?

Can you help me out here please? I really, genuinely would like to know! (I'll never need the knowledge, but I want to have it ["The more you know", type of thing!]
Thanks in advance!
 
You can do it in the same way you can plate nickel on copper. Just because there isn't any articles about electroplating nickel on gold doesn't mean it is hard. It just mean there is no reason to do it.

One place it happens often is plating racks, each time it is used for plating objects there is a layer of nickel plated, then a layer of gold, then nickel, gold... and so on. The object to be plated is changed on each cycle so it only receives a gold on nickel surface but the plating rack is building up layer upon layer.

Gold is such a good substrate so plating nickel onto gold shouldn't be hard.

Göran
 
kernels said:
Yeah, awesome thread, I was 100% convinced that Jon would be correct until I saw that video posted by Steve! Thanks to both of you guys for the education!
Click to expand...

It's a good thread Kernels. I might have been wrong but I learned something, and everyone reading it will also learn. That's a win in my book. 8)

Jon.
 
anachronism said:
kernels said:
Yeah, awesome thread, I was 100% convinced that Jon would be correct until I saw that video posted by Steve! Thanks to both of you guys for the education!
Click to expand...

It's a good thread Kernels. I might have been wrong but I learned something, and everyone reading it will also learn. That's a win in my book. 8)

Jon.
Click to expand...

Serious question for you Jon.

With the quantity you are moving, what makes you decide to process manually vs have processed with the bulk of your product?

Magnetism of the kovar lid?
 
I did not believe about double plating as I could not see logical reason and I literally had them in my hands. Replating rejects sounds plausible.
It pays to look closer, not that I would miss it as unstripped lids would go back to stripping solution but as I said it is better to look twice or more. Good job Steve.
 
I am new to the forum. This was a fantastic thread. Much to learn have I. Thanks to all.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk
 

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