I don't remember that explanation, though I guess it could be plausible. What I
remember reading was that, since western Colorado and eastern Utah, where they
were getting some of their materials was also an area of relatively high
concentration of radioactive minerals, which certainly lines up with the 1950's
activity in uranium prospecting/mining in that area. It was easy for me to buy
into during that period. The problem was found in almost all ceramic packages
made from materials acquired in that part of the country, so it seemed
reasonable enough. It doesn't matter now, of course.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Allison" <ajp166_at_bellatlantic.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: Intel C8080A chip brings $565 on EBAY
> Not quite true.
>
> The Dram problem was one of those "we knew it was comming" due
> to shrinking geometry items. The source of the radiation was the Gold
> eutectic braze. The specific radiation was alpha particles. FYI the
> solution was organic based die overcoat. Testing for the phenomina was
> undertaken to verify and analyze the phenomina by NEC,IBM and MOTO
> (to name a few) using initally small geometry 16k single voltage (i2118
> style) parts.
>
> FYI: the coors ceramic parts were morecostly due to the gold! They
> however were better for hermetic performance than slab with glass frit
> sealed packages.
>
> Allison
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
> To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> Date: Monday, November 19, 2001 11:00 AM
> Subject: Re: Intel C8080A chip brings $565 on EBAY
>
>
> >Back in the early days of 64k DRAMs, the COORS ceramics were described as
> having
> >too much radioactivity for use in high-density memories. I'm not sure that
> was,
> >in fact, the case, but somebody seems to have thought so. Do you suppose
> they
> >fixed that? Coors was a leader, in the '60's in porcelain tooling and
> other
> >such oddities, not to mention having "perfected" the draw-and-iron process
> for
> >making thin-walled aluminum beverage cans.
> >
> >Dick
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Douglas Quebbeman" <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
> >To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> >Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 7:37 AM
> >Subject: RE: Intel C8080A chip brings $565 on EBAY
> >
> >
> >> > It's very late run ceramic. Ceramic for chip substrates only comes
> from a
> >> > few vendors one being a beer maker in the rockies a few in the far east
> and
> >> > Europe.
> >>
> >> heh... actually, Adolph Coors spun-off its non-brewery assets in 1992
> >> into ACX Technologies, and most recently, CoorsTek (formerly Coors
> >> Ceramics) was spun-off into a wholly separate company on Jan 1, 2000.
> >>
> >> -dq
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
Received on Mon Nov 19 2001 - 12:23:47 GMT