James Fogg ????????:
In the 1960's and 70's my mother worked as a bonder for Transitron in
Wakefield Massachusetts. They mostly did .gov work and a lot of her work
went to NASA and defense work. She would bring home reject work that had
not been "capped" (open top, die, pins and bonding wires visible). I
remember her making some into jewelry. They were so unusual at the time
that they attracted a lot of attention.
O yah! Several of us used to make "bug" jewelry and other stuff from
the rejects. Someone's kid made a bug collection and a diorama of
"wild" bugs for a science fair and got a blue and a gold ribbon for
them. Also took the scrapped wirebond wire for jewelry, too. At the
time, the aluminum wire was pretty inexpensive and there was no
interest in conserving it. They were always throwing away spools with
leftover wire, often with several dozen feet of wire left on them. The
gold wire was not that much more expensive. It's nowhere near "cheap"
now.
Someone also started a business of making "bug" jewelry from the
reject and scrapped stuff bought from semiconductor makers. They had
earrings, brooches, charms, etc. Dunno if they're still in business.
--
jd
yawn. pass it on.