Author Topic: Repair Broken IC Pin  (Read 1482 times)

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Offline bostonmanTopic starter

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Repair Broken IC Pin
« on: December 17, 2019, 06:01:44 pm »
I don't know how this happened, but I used a hot air pencil to remove a thru-hole IC and somehow a pin broke off at the base of the IC package. Since then, I am almost sure the IC wasn't bad and need to reuse it.

A little metal is still visible. I'm thinking of inserting it into a socket and solder a piece of wire from the socket to the exposed metal.

Has anyone attempted to grind part of the package to expose more metal?
 

Offline magic

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Re: Repair Broken IC Pin
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2019, 07:47:11 pm »
Look up "DIP leadframe" to see what's inside. There is certainly a possibility of doing that, but be careful not to damage other pins while grinding. That stuff is pretty hard, somewhat brittle but not very easy to break and also resistant to any reasonable solvent you could try to etch it with.

Don't grind too close to the central "island" which holds the die or you may tear bonding wires which connect the pins to pads on the die. Then you are genuinely SOL.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2019, 07:49:20 pm by magic »
 

Online andy3055

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Re: Repair Broken IC Pin
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2019, 07:23:28 pm »
Yes, it can be done. The key is to expose enough metal for the solder to adhere to. Use an Exacto knife to cut off a little of the casing on either side of the broken pin (I have done it in the past in desperation at a time and place when things were not available!) rather than grinding as you can grind off accidentally what you already have exposed.

Is this a custom IC or something that is obsolete that you can't find? What is the number on the IC?

Can you post a picture?
 

Offline dnwheeler

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Re: Repair Broken IC Pin
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2019, 07:21:17 pm »
I would put the chip in a socket (permanently), remove a bit of the package around the broken-off pin (carefully scrape/pick with a pointed tool), then insert a discarded component lead into the socket hole below the missing pin, trim the lead to length and solder it to the exposed portion of the broken pin.
 


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