At 11:05 AM 1/27/01 -0500, you wrote:

>Chips are encapsulated to protect them from damage caused by the slow
>infiltration of contaminants. If you manage to open up the chip without
>physically damaging the lead frame, bonding wires or die it will probably
>work, for a while at least.

Decapsulation can be done fairly easily, it involves some nasty chemicals
that are not available at retail. If anyone is interested, a web search
will yield some procedures. There are also small machines that will do
this automatically. The cost of the chemicals would probably be about
$100 from a lab supply outfit, and there would be hazmat shipping and
disposal considerations.

>Anybody's guess on the definition of 'a while'.

I don't think there would be any problem, at least in a dry environment.
The chip itself is passivated with a glass layer, so its only the aluminum
bonding wires to worry about corrosion on.

Best regards,

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