The issue here is that even a replacement will eventually fail due to the design of the IC. Here is a very "quick and dirty" explanation of what causes most of these failures.Sometimes it is a failure of the solder balls which connect the IC package to the motherboard. It does happen and you can see why [http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=223|on here] More commonly however is that the failure is due to the chip design itself.
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The issue here is that even a replacement will eventually fail due to the design of the IC. Here is a very "quick and dirty" explanation of what causes most of these failures.Sometimes it is a failure of the solder balls which connect the IC package to the motherboard. It does happen and you can see why [http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=223|on here]. More commonly however is that the failure is due to the chip design itself.
[image|765994]
As you can see the "bumps' are what actually connects the die to the substrate to make the chip complete. If these bumps fail, the die does no longer make contact with the substrate and thus no contact with the circuit board. The chip has failed.
[image|765995]
Here you can see the space where the bump has failed and no longer makes contact. We are talking microns of space here. So a bit of pressure on the top of the die potentially close the gap. Same with a reflow, it may allow some of material from the bump to reshape and starting to make contact again. The heating of cooling of the chip during use is what will eventually cause it to fail again.
So if anything, the design of a more effective heatsink may provide a more viable solution.
The issue here is that even a replacement will eventually fail due to the design of the IC. Here is a very "quick and dirty" explanation of what causes most of these failures.Sometimes it is a failure of the solder balls which connect the IC package to the motherboard. It does happen and you can see why [ http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=223|on here] More commonly however is that the failure is due to the chip design itself.
[image|765994]
-
As you can see the "bumps' are what actually connects the die to the substrate to make the chip complete. If these bumps fail, the die does no longer make contact either he substrate and thus no contact with the circuit board. The chip has failed.
+
As you can see the "bumps' are what actually connects the die to the substrate to make the chip complete. If these bumps fail, the die does no longer make contact with the substrate and thus no contact with the circuit board. The chip has failed.
[image|765995]
Here you can see the space where the bump has failed and no longer makes contact. We are talking microns of space here. So a bit of pressure on the top of the die potentially close the gap. Same with a reflow, it may allow some of material from the bump to reshape and starting to make contact again. The heating of cooling of the chip during use is what will eventually cause it to fail again.
So if anything, the design of a more effective heatsink may provide a more viable solution.
The issue here is that even a replacement will eventually fail due to the design of the IC. Here is a very "quick and dirty" explanation of what causes most of these failures.Sometimes it is a failure of the solder balls which connect the IC package to the motherboard. It does happen and you can see why [ http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=223|on here] More commonly however is that the failure is due to the chip design itself.
[image|765994]
As you can see the "bumps' are what actually connects the die to the substrate to make the chip complete. If these bumps fail, the die does no longer make contact either he substrate and thus no contact with the circuit board. The chip has failed.
[image|765995]
Here you can see the space where the bump has failed and no longer makes contact. We are talking microns of space here. So a bit of pressure on the top of the die potentially close the gap. Same with a reflow, it may allow some of material from the bump to reshape and starting to make contact again. The heating of cooling of the chip during use is what will eventually cause it to fail again.
So if anything, the design of a more effective heatsink may provide a more viable solution.