Quoting Mike Hord : > Sean AND Paul- > > On Jan 8, 2008 9:30 PM, Sean Breheny wrote: >> I had a case where the manufacturer did this for me free (it was a >> Lattice FPGA with an IO port which didn't work - it was determined to >> be due to a static hit). They even sent me a full report with color >> photos (under an optical microscope). If you buy enough of them (and >> in this case it was a part which is $16 each in quantity), they may do >> this for you. > > One of the manufacturers has already been gracious enough to do this > for us. We may contact the other (there are two chips by two different > companies involved here), if we get more failures on the second product. > >> On Jan 8, 2008 7:04 PM, Paul Hutchinson wrote: >> > If you can afford to spend 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars (possibly >> > millions) then there are firms that can diagnose the failures for >> you. They >> > can use X-ray machines, remove the packaging and inspect with a scanning >> > electron microscope, as well as other exotic and expensive procedures to >> > determine the precise nature of failure. > > We've already been in touch with one of those companies- they have done > quite a bit (though not enough) for us already. THEY claim that this was a > simple case of overvoltage- our power supply was too hot, the chips fried, > end of story. Nothing I have done has repeated that, however, so I'm VERY > skeptical about it. Yet it fits the described failure situation (not just the condition of the parts) pretty well. Possibly there is something you have missed with the distances involved etc.? Best regards, Spehro Pefhany -- "it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" s...@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist