Our Partnership Process

You tell us the chip type you would like to have renewed. We’ll quote a price per chip for removing, renewed, and testing that chip type. We’ll then arrange with you to process a small, representative lot of boards and return the renewed chips to you. If you are completely satisfied with the results, we’ll be ready to process commercial sized lots for you.

We charge a fee for each chip renewed and tested. Our fee is customized based on the type and volume of chips you want renewed. Larger chips generally cost more, as do smaller lots. 

Our customers typically review the various chip marketing sites to evaluate their chips’ worth prior to coming to IC Recovery.

It’s important to know that our process recovers all components from the boards, not just the chips you’ve designated for renewal. So, if you have a need for some or all of the other components and/or the bare boards, we can return those to you as well. Otherwise, all residual materials go to our ISO 14001 approved downstream vendors. We are happy to provide details. We can also discuss any concerns you have about data destruction and how we ensure that, if you wish.

We are ISO 14001:2015 certified and have ISO 9001 in process.

We provide a report certifying that your chips have been tested successfully for functionality, and we can offer higher level testing upon request. We back up our results with a money back guarantee for any chip that fails. We also provide a list of our downstream vendors for residual materials and copies of all certificates they provide to us. We arrange for counterfeit mitigation as requested.

The lead time for the entire renewal process is 4-6 weeks.

The electrical functional test is under power. A separate external visual inspection is performed.

The standard testing is electrical function testing using published datasheet values. Additional testing is available as requested by the customer.

Larger components are our most common requirement due to their value and reduced availability.  IC Recovery reviews manufacturers’ datasheets at the pilot process step to identify any atypical sensitivities that may require a process modification.  If the components were attached to the circuit card with a mass reflow process, the IC Recovery process will present a more benign exposure than the original assembly process.

The process controls are consistent with the process used for assembly. There is no experience or expectation for immediate or latent failures for any device above the rate experienced for initial assembly. 

For most materials, yes. The glue/underfill softens in the process and can be separated manually.

The ICR process will recover any chip that’s adhered to a populated circuit board with lead or lead-free solder, regardless of the chip package type. New chip packages are evaluated simply to determine whether modification is needed to the manner in which the board is exposed to the thermal fluid.

The tight temperature controls limit the thermal ramps and peak temperature. Such process controls allow these types of components and boards to have high levels of process success.

The mechanism of the chip recovery process is adaptable to handle fragile boards. The ICR process is designed to recover components and is not designed to facilitate board reuse.

The wire bond rework process is available upon request.

The IC Recovery process is intended to recover soldered components and is not suitable for press fit and other mechanically mounted parts.

IC Recovery provides a certification of renewal for designated chips.  It is the customer’s responsibility to flowdown the certification to other interested parties in the supply chain. Please refer to the ink dot identification recommended in the response to Item 3 and note that ICR can utilize any particular identification standard required.

The renew process is compliant to J-STD-033, J-STD-020, IPC-7711/7721, ESD-625, and ISO14001:2015.

ICR will provide for any additional testing required by the customer.

The re-balling process is capable of extremely small sphere diameters, tight pitches, and high ball count.  Each component is evaluated prior to processing for any extraordinary features that may require process modification.

The process will handle CGA, PGA, and LGA (land grid array) components.

Yes, different stencils are used for the sphere placement of devices with different sphere sizes.

The controlled rate of increase and peak temperature increase in the process should limit any additional warpage.

From the Environmental Impact Report conducted by Boundless Impact Research & Analytics, August, 2022:

Fossil Energy Footprint

This metric represents the fossil fuel energy inputs per chip, including the processes, embodied energy of materials, transportation, and end of life through the supply chain, reported in megajoules (MJ) per chip

▶ The estimated Fossil Energy Footprint of an IC Recovery recovered chip is 1.5 MJ per chip.

▶ Recovering metals at the end of life of a chip reduces its Fossil Energy Footprint by 39%, while recovering the chip one time during its lifetime with IC Recovery’s technology reduces the Fossil Energy Footprint by 97%.  

The IC Recovery process contributes to the sustainability of electronic products by extending their life in the market. ICR will provide data on product component materials in support of the key goal of the DPP to provide manufacturers with an understanding of materials they reuse in their products to achieve their sustainability goals. 

As the DPP continues to be defined, ICR will provide the information required based on the applicable open standards. The core operational systems are in place. As the standards evolve, ICR will establish the required APIs to communicate with the DPP information gathering systems providing the data for compliance with those standards.