On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:15:46 GMT, "Frank Dresser"
wrote:


"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:
Building chips in mass quantitys doesn't cost much money per each
chip.Look at the chips in your computer.It isn't as if they would need
to design a completly new chip,in my opinion.All they would need to do
is start another run of chips.

Not possible. Chip design and manufacturing has changed greatly since the
early '80s. You would have to redesign the chips with modern materials
and manufacuring methods. The cost of doing this would be too high for
chips made in small quantities.

For example, wires were soldered to the chips. It is now illegal to
sell chips in most places with lead, e.g. solder, in them. New technqiues
have been developed, but that changes the capacitance and conductivity of
them which changes it's RF characteristics.

Aren't the wires in chips wire bonded, which is akin to spot welding?

Have the "most places" who've banned the presumed chips with lead in them
also banned lead in the soldered connections on circuit boards?

I take it you mean banned outright, not just banned from landfills and
incenerators.
They have banned lead, but largely because of the fumes from the
production of the products, Pure tin solders have some very
interesting problems of their own, and it has been a very unpleasant
experience for the Military. Under conditions not well understood, the
tin will grow crystals sometimes, and the crystals can and do create
new connections that were never intended, usually with less than
desireable consequences...