WindowLESS Eproms - Gold & Silver

If you are planning on selling your ICs Proms and Eproms to people who are going to refine them, I wouldn't crack them open to show what's on the inside. Once you do, it's difficult to tell if it's an IC, Prom or Eprom and all the refiner has to go on is your word. And as we all know, when dealing with precious metals, everyone believes everyone else is attempting to rip them off.

On the inside of these chips, you could have gold, silver and/or palladium, that's right there is palladium in some of these as well. Also, sometimes the silver material you are looking at isn't silver or palladium at all, but tin.

So far as the legs are concerned, if they are silver, you can almost be sure they are tin and not silver. The reason why silver is used on the inside and not the outside is that silver oxidizes which affects it's ability to conduct electricity properly.

By cracking the Prom/Eprom/IC open, you run the risk of loosing the tiny little wire leads that are almost always some time of precious metal. Here are a few pictures of what I am talking about:







I really like this picture of a white ceramic Eprom with the wires showing through the window:



Also, the older Eproms/Proms/ICs are worth more because the precious metals were worth less, and the technology to deposit the precious metals was not nearly as advanced as it is today. So your white ceramic chips are generally the oldest. Here is a picture of some white ceramic chips:

Eproms:



Proms:





Here is a picture of white Eproms, purple Eproms and Proms, Eproms are the ones with windows, UV light was used to erase them so they could be reprogrammed. Proms have no windows and the ICs are the smaller, skinnier purples ones on the left hand side. Purple ceramic is not as old as the white ceramic, but there is some crossover. Generally the white ones should be saved for collectors because they are worth more as collector pieces than they are for their precious metals.



The newest Eproms, are generally grey or black. Here is a picture of a newer Eprom:



The layer the OP is talking about is the oxide layer, it is weaker than the silicon, and also holds the channels the legs are set in. Like I said above, I wouldn't crack these open in order to sell them to refiners. I would keep them whole, and maybe only crack open one to show pictures of it so the person buying can see what's inside. You can buy a digital microscope to take pictures of the fine wires on the inside, if you are really industrious and plan on selling a lot of these.

And remember, just because it's silver in color does not mean it's silver, it could be palladium also. Palladium is sometimes used because it doesn't oxidize like silver.

I thought I would throw in a picture of some gold IC chips that were plated top, bottom and the legs as well. I sold these for $35 each which is far more than the gold content. If you look under the vintage computer section on ebay, you can get an idea of what chips you can sell for more than their scrap value. If you are pulling any of the older chips I would check this section of ebay first:

Vintage Computer in Other | eBay

And if you do a search for vintage Eproms this is what you might come up with:

vintage eproms | eBay

You can see the value on some of these is far more than what they might bring processing them, and you certainly wouldn't want to break off the eprom window. Here are some Proms:

vintage prom chips | eBay

Scott

Originally Posted by Flinthills

If my wording sounded as if I were advocating breaking them open, I apologize. My thinking was simply that others might want to know that there are chips out there as valuable as gold windows even though they do not have a window. Personally speaking, if I see ones that have the oxide layer in place, they're going in a different bucket from now on.

Naw, it didn't sound like you were advocating tearing them apart, actually I can appreciate the fact you were curious and industrious enough to break them open to see for yourself what value might be hidden inside. I say good job. A lot of my posts have to do with pointing out things from my point of view, as someone who refines and recovers precious metals, and how I purchase that type of material, and I do so in order to help people who collect, break down and sell that type of material make a fair profit.

I thought your post was informative enough that I took the time to do what I hope compliments it some with a little bit of what I know myself. And I hope someone else is able to expand more so maybe I can learn something I didn't know as well.

So please don't take what I posted as me thinking you were advocating removing the lids or breaking apart chips, I just wanted to suggest for others who might read your post, or mine, and think they might should break open all the chips, that they might be better served not doing so.

Excellent post by the way!

Scott

If you put the chip along it's side against something hard, and gently strike it with a hammer the tops tend to pop off. Also you can take two pair of vice grips, hold the bottom portion with one pair, and the very top portion with the second pair, twist and coax them apart like an oreo cookie. Or, you can even put them in a vice and slowly apply pressure, the top will eventually pop off. OR you can heat them up real hot, quench them in water and the tops tend to pop off.

The oxide layer between the silicon layers, is very fragile and will shatter or break with very little work or effort. You could probably drop it on it's side and it might pop off.

Scott

Originally Posted by happyisthealero

LOL, Thanks Scott. If it is one thing I love about people like you is that you give me more than one option in breaking something down, or more than one explanation of how to do something! Thank you!!

Anytime, there are probably a 100 other ways of doing it. I heard once someone looking at them in just the right way, and the top popping off.

Just kidding about that by the way...

Scott

Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks

Anytime, there are probably a 100 other ways of doing it. I heard once someone looking at them in just the right way, and the top popping off.

Just kidding about that by the way...

Scott

That was probably the wife's icy stare,,,

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

That was probably the wife's icy stare,,,

It's not the icy stare I worry about I can always warm up after, it's the lasers that shoot from the eyes that concern me.

Scott

Originally Posted by rawresale

I heard that that's how Chuck Norris scraps chips.

Chuck Norris doesn't scrap chips, he just converts them directly to gold, silver and palladium.

Scott

Chuck Norris doesn't scrap electronics for precious metals, he creates nuclear fission with just the power of a thought, and turns plain air into whatever precious metals he desires!

Scott

now what to do with the 17 pounds of silver windows and 3 pounds of gold windows ive accumulated