[Elecraft] FYI: IC Sockets Tin or Gold plated contacts

Wed May 28 20:22:00 2003

Gold is a very inactive metal, and, without any real expertise, were I 
forced to, I would bet that any galvanic activity between tin and gold is 
essentially zero. I have no doubt that, in principle, Trevor's engineer is 
correct.  But I suspect the practical content of his remarks are nil.  I'd 
love, however, to hear from someone who really knows.

best wishes,

dave belsley, w1euy

--On Wednesday, May 28, 2003 2:53 PM -0700 Trevor Jacobs 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Gang,
>
> Just thought I'd share this information with the list. A while back I
> posed the question of "Is it OK to use tin plated IC pins into a gold
> plated machine pinned socket?" After a conversation with Don Wilhelm over
> e-mail, I decided to do a bit of research on the subject. I was aware
> that using dissimilar metal can be a problem and could lead to corrosion.
> I posed the question to an applications engineer at Mill-Max and here's
> the reply:
>
> Trevor,
> This is a common problem being that most devices have tin plated leads
> and most customers buy gold plated contacts. Theoretically
> the best connection would be gold on gold of course. The fact that you
> have dissimilar metals will in fact accelerate the galvanic reaction
> in your connection. The best option for you is to go with a tin plated
> contact as well to match the tin plated lead. You are at least
> minimizing the corrosion with similar metals. There is not much you can
> do about the oxidation being that your leads are tin regardless.
>
> Best Regards,
> Steve Verivakis
> Applications Engineer
> Mill-Max Mfg.
> tel.(516)922-6000 ext. 301
> fax.(516)922-2469
> [email protected]
>
> So there you have it, from the horse's mouth. Glad I waited before I put
> those sockets in. It seems that the whole "Gold Sockets are Better" idea
> is kind of a myth unless you have IC's with gold pins. So for those of
> you that want to use better quality sockets, go with the tin plated
> machine pin sockets and NOT the gold variety. Take care...
>
> 73's Trev KG6CYN
> http://www.qsl.net/kg6cyn
>
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----------------------------------
David A. Belsley
Professor of Economics