Does anyone have any info on these?

[macfixer01]

Hi,
The auction for these oddball chips ended a few days ago. You can click the "See Original Listing" link on the page, but there was no description other than the weight. I had intended to bid on them but forgot until after the auction was over already. Is anybody familiar with what they are, or what they came out of? I don't see any numbers other than some handwritten ones and a couple that look like numbers may have been scratched off. The design is very strange, not like anything I've ever seen. Maybe experimental or some variation on the other leadless chips someone posted about a couple years ago? Those others had contact pads along the two side edges though, basically the same as a 40 pin DIP without the pins welded on. I was assuming that these chips were probably the size of a 40 pin DIP also? Now that I'm looking at the pictures again though, there is nothing for scale and they could be smaller than I imagined?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/850-grams-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-/181425257664

Thanks,
macfixer01

 

[g_axelsson]

Could it be dummy samples for practicing wire bonding? It looks like there are a lot of bond wires on them.

Göran

 

[macfixer01]

Could it be dummy samples for practicing wire bonding? It looks like there are a lot of bond wires on them.

Göran

You could be right on that. I was thinking those could be contacts for some sort of socket that it was pressed into, but the wires really looked too weak for that. If they are just experiments or for training then, there may be nothing inside them and only what gold is visible on the outside?

 

[glondor]

Just a guess, but I would say that what you see is what you get. If there are no components on the ceramics, there is nothing for the gold to be "in".
Break them open and take a close look inside. If they are no more than what you see, recovery will be a breeze! Be sure to test for silver.

 

[Smack]

Looks like a short trip through A/R to me IF there is nothing inside. Should be a cake walk, nice find.




sp

 

[macfixer01]

Looks like a shot trip through A/R to me IF there is nothing inside. Should be a cake walk, nice find.

Well as I said, I didn't get these. I was snoozing and never did place a bid on them. It's hard to say how much gold is there. They were just so unusual looking that I wondered what their purpose was? Some sort of bonding experiment seems plausible, but since that sort of thing is normally done by automated machinery I just don't know. If a member did get them though, please do let us know what you recover?

Thanks,
macfixer01

 

[g_axelsson]

I think that there is still manual bonding done. Prototypes, low series of special circuits, optical devices, micro wave circuits.... and they could also be some old pieces discovered in a closet.

Göran

 

[burningsuntech]

As soon as I saw these I was reminded of some special tuned circuits I saw when I worked for a microwave company.
The squares are set to be the coil and the stripes are the capacitors. Depending on the configuration with the bonding wires,
these guys will emit a special frequency when hit with a microwave signal. A kind of returned echo for radar to identify the
the target. The same technology is used in anti-theft stickers for high value goods in specialty stores.

These look like a nice find. Soak em I say!