Re: [tlug] Golden Chips

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

"Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com> wrote:

> (don't they use gold for parts of IC chips, etc?)

Gold is used little in the chips themselves. 
Probably mostly as a dopant. 

Gold used to be commonly used for bond wires from the package to 
the chip, both for its mechanical properties such as maleability 
and its ability to ultrasonically weld it. The package wire frame 
may also be gold plated. Both uses have been greatly reduced due 
to the expense of gold. 

Within a chip, most interconnects were aluminum until IBM's advance 
to use copper. Actually, most interconnects are probably still 
aluminum, reserving copper for the highest performance chips. 

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper-based_chips