Check out how my ICs came!

[tautech]

Sure, except for the things they don't put in antistatic bags.

Yep that really annoys me.
There is NO excuse for missing anti-static protection. 

Or a miserable attempt using just polystyrene or some pink foam 

I have sent emails to sellers over this matter, chastising them for failing to follow standard industry practice.
I also threaten to name and shame them here.
I now insist to sellers that IC's, Fets etc be shipped with proper anti-static protection.

Normally there is no further discussion when an ESD document is sent to them.

But what worries me more is, if they are quite happy to send without ESD protection, what are their in-house ESD practices like? 

[VK3DRB]

At IBM in the 1990's a vendor shipped a large bag of CR2032 button cells in an ESD bag. The result was the bag was quite warm and putting your hand into the bag and moving it around in the sea of batteries gave you an electric shock. eg: 3V x 50 = 150 VDC.

It was the Darwin award for whoever packed those batteries.

[rob77]

bipolars fry just as easy as mosfets due tot static.  keep in mind we are dealing with micrometer and nanometer structures. flashover happens very quickly...

that's not my experienece... i never had a bipolar damaged by static, compared to many NMOS DIPs turned into decorative items by static electricity

[westfw]

I bought some mercury switches via eBay, and they arrived with a fair fraction broken.
Sorta scary, since mercury is hazmat due to metallurgical properties, as well being poisonous...

[janoc]

I have received a pack of 2 STM32F103 chips taped to a scrap piece of a perfboard and wrapped in saran wrap  . Pity that I didn't think about taking a photo of that before cutting the thing open but I didn't expect the micros to be packaged like that. 

I have certainly blacklisted that seller for the future.

[dannyf]

I was given a small bag of tssop20 chips in an envelope. I put it in the back pocket of my jeans and forgot about it totally. Wore the jeans for a weak, sitting on it multiple times.

The jeans went into a washer / dryer cycle and the chips were discovered when I tried to wear it again.

Other than one bent pin, nothing happened to those chips.

[leppie]

Other than one bent pin, nothing happened to those chips.

So they were never used, or they were not damaged?   

[dannyf]

Some of them have been  used, including that one with a bent pin. No problem so far.

[Vgkid]

I once bought 15 1k trimpots. Placed in a antistatic box between antistatic foam. That was then sealed in a antistatic silver bag. Then finally placed in a regular shipping box.

[tom66]

They're ULN2003... pretty much just an array of transistors... will survive quite a lot of abuse.

Now, if they were some CMOS chip... Or a 2N7002, the number of those I have killed, G-S shorted due to ESD, must be in the double digits.

[nuno]

I already mentioned this in another thread, but I once had a uk store send me 125 ATmega328 loose inside 2 static dissipative plastic bags, inside 2 carton boxes. I don't know what was worse, if the bent pins or the black epoxy dust from the 2K or 3K Km of chip to chip rubbing trip. Seller totally blacklisted, of course.

[janoc]

Just arrived - SSD1963 display drivers:






No, that isn't an ESD dissipative plastic foil! 

[LukeW]

A certain major distributor sent me this trimmer the other day

[rob77]

A certain major distributor sent me this trimmer the other day

if i would be the guy packing it, then i would choose even a bigger box - just because you ordered 1 piece

[dannyf]

A certain major distributor sent me this trimmer the other day

Someone gave me one Luminary LM3S chips (it could be 811 or 812) that he had received from Luminary, unsealed. It is in a full tray, and the chip was just in one corner of the tray, which is otherwise entirely empty.

[marshallh]

I bought some QFP208 fpgas from Sparkfail once (smh...)

This is how they came




Larger 0.5mm QFPs like these have very thick packages and long thin leads that bend if you blow on them. I was unable to send them to the asembly house in this form.

[janoc]

A certain major distributor sent me this trimmer the other day

Ehm, I have got a single 0805 resistor shipped like that once. But it is in anti-static foam!

[janoc]

I bought some QFP208 fpgas from Sparkfail once (smh...)

This is how they came

OK, that's really crazy.    At least mine were in a tray and with a piece of cardboard on top. I guess I shouldn't complain too much then!   

[rob77]

I bought some QFP208 fpgas from Sparkfail once (smh...)

This is how they came




Larger 0.5mm QFPs like these have very thick packages and long thin leads that bend if you blow on them. I was unable to send them to the asembly house in this form.

ROFLMAO   

actually i would return them or at least ask for a HUGE discount....
question why they're employing someone so retarded he took the effort to repack them like that ? it must have been a significant effort to repack them.... did he wanted the tray so badly ? or what the heck...

[dannyf]

This is how they came

Those are loosies off the assembly line floor.

[rob77]

This is how they came

Those are loosies off the assembly line floor.

must have been a shitty pick 'n place then

[tom66]

I ordered 10 radial fuses from CPC (along with a set of MUR460 diodes), and they bagged each individually. The fuses have a value of £0.10 each. CPC are ridiculous with their packaging. Included with my £6.50 order were two "air-pak" bags, postage costs, and a large cardboard box ("small parcel" category by RM.)

[netdudeuk]

A very big UK vendor sent me a 40 pin DIP in an extra box eighteen inches long because there didn't want to shorten the tube and put it in the box with the other components.

[cosmicray]

I've received header pins and other connectors in antistatic bags. It's pretty funny. Usually DigiKey

Well with their type of volume it probably makes more economic sense to put everything in the same bags, rather than waste time/money differentiating what needs an AS bag and what doesn't.

A quick check of ULine (large US vendor of shipping supplies) shows 4x6 2-mil AS bags at $25/1k, while normal 4x6 2-mil zip bags at $22/1k. Barely enough difference to worry about.

An order I received a few days ago had cut tape resistors, caps, and logic gates, each tape in it's own AS baggie.

[jaxbird]

My complaint usually go the other way with suppliers being overly cautious with packaging, like e.g. Microchip, you order a couple of chips and you receive a large FedEX bag with a long cardboard box, inside the long box you find a small antistatic chest like box insulated with antistatic foam and a couple of chips in a tray.

In this case the volume of packaging is more than 1000 times the volume of the actual product.

Why not just throw the chest like box in a padded envelope and send it?, no one cares about the 100 pages paperwork included.