Repairing IC pins

[Philip Pemberton]

In message <200507221801.LAA04557 at clulw009.amd.com>
          "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey at amd.com> wrote:

>  What kind of package are we talking about?

PLCC plastic.

> Plastic can be cut back by about 1/32" to allow connecting
> a pin from a scrap IC. ceramic is a little tougher.

Yeah, I tried that - Dremel with a micro-drill bit. Shame the bloody thing
skittered off and ripped the lead completely out of the plastic :(

> If the
> pin is one of those iron cored pins,

Copper-cored, tin-plated on an AMD Am29F040. No big deal - it was mangled in
shipping and the distributor has agreed to send a replacement out. Just a
bit annoying when all the hardware is ready to go and is only being held up
by a Flash ROM :-/

>  I have a number of RAM IC that are gradually failing because
> they have the iron cored pins. I guess these were cheaper
> but electrolysis between the plating and the iron rots them
> out from the inside making the pin very fragile.

Eep. Thankfully most of the ICs I've dealt with had SnPb-plated Cu pins (or
Sn-plated Cu).

Later.
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