alt Hacker NewsThis isn't about CT scanning, but about the chip itself.
Since the bond wires are just hanging out in air, does this mean that a chip like this could be ruined by dropping it which might cause the bond wires to move enough to short something?
Thanks for all your hard work!
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Yes, that can be a problem. Story from one of my professors who worked on instrumentation and telemetry for a defense lab. They built a data recorder for artillery shells. In the early "flight" tests, the recorders failed and nobody could figure out why. They worked before and after. Then someone realized the high acceleration bent some of the bond wires in the chips, causing them to touch and short. The fix was surprisingly simple: make sure all chips face top down.
I'm not an expert in this area but I'd expect that the bond wires' mass is low enough relative to their stiffness that any shock sufficient to bend them would also shatter the ceramic package.
If the chip is subjected to a few thousand g's of shock the wires can bend and short.
This failure mode is quite low on the list among others, but it is something that people did investigate. For example: "Swing Touch Risk Assessment of Bonding Wires in High-Density Package Under Mechanical Shock Condition" https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/electronicpackaging/a...