| General > General Technical Chat |
| Why are ICs/Semis black? |
| << < (4/7) > >> |
| james_s:
I've seen a lot of green transistors in Japanese electronics, which you don't see a lot of in general anymore. I suspect like others have said, that black is the cheapest and the most opaque. If you want anything dark colored, it's probably easiest and cheapest to go with black, it provides a nice dark surface to print on and makes it relatively easy to get a consistent color between batches. In thinking about this I'm reminded of the Dry-Z-Air devices that hold moisture absorbing salt crystals. They're black but at least the older ones if you look up close have blotches of all sorts of colors. I assumed they must empty all the remnants of plastic pellets from molding other goods and mix them all together to make those things as nobody really cares what color such a utilitarian device is. |
| trophosphere:
This is an interesting transparent DIP IC. |
| amyk:
That one clearly has a sensor of some kind in the middle, which is why it's transparent. Optical mouses sensors are one type of IC currently in production with transparent packaging |
| Canis Dirus Leidy:
--- Quote from: Cyberdragon on May 03, 2021, 04:52:31 pm ---I believe the Soviets also had green semiconductors (in both metal and plastic). --- End quote --- Well, it mostly depended on what kind of filling was put in the cookies: http://www.155la3.ru/k405.htm http://www.155la3.ru/k828.htm ;) |
| Caliaxy:
Maybe black plastic dissipates heat more efficiently? |
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