Hidden Gold Inside BGA IC Chips!

Hidden Gold Inside BGA IC Chips!

Inside many BGA (Ball Grid Array) IC chips, you can find tiny gold wires used to make electrical connections between the silicon die and the chip’s internal pins. These gold wires are extremely fine — often thinner than a human hair — but they are made of real gold because gold conducts electricity perfectly and never rusts or oxidizes.

When you open a BGA chip, you’ll see a small silicon die at the center, usually surrounded by epoxy or black resin. Beneath that resin, thin bonding wires of gold connect the die to the internal circuit pads. These chips are often found in computer motherboards, graphic cards, laptops, and mobile phones.

Recovering gold from BGA chips requires careful handling — first, the chip must be removed from the board, then opened or crushed to expose the inner die. Chemical or thermal processes can then be used to separate the gold wires from other materials.

Even though the amount of gold per chip is small, collecting and processing many chips together can yield a surprising amount of gold over time.