Flat Packs (Forgotten PC History) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

9 Aug 2008

...
  > When I worked at Odetics Anaheim,CA in the
mid-70s we used tons of the
...
  > "flatpacks" in our Spacebourne black
boxes. They came in TTL, CMOS and I
...
  > think even some ECL. The parts were spot welded
with the legs straight
...
  out
 > to gold posts that protruded slightly off of the PCBs. Expensive stuff,
...
  a
 > RAM chip cost about $600 at the time. The parts were real low profile
...
  and
 > weighed less than DIPs ( important in spacecraft, weight / space is at a
...
   premium ). The
parts were all MIL-STD and some projects even RAD-  hardened
 > parts. Fun stuff. 

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.

BTW, a bonder soldered the hair thin gold wire from the "chip" (dice) to
the carrier legs (pins). They used stereo microscopes and it was
precision work.