How to Open the Core Lid/Cap of Pentium Pro

[Neology]

Recently I have received a Penitum Pro with a broken lid. (I know, it is shame)

I would like to remove the lid and fit into foreverfire's show stand for the demonstration purposes.

I have tried to use a hot air gun to blow constantly around the edge of the lid at 400-600°C for about 10 minutes, however, the solder doesn't seem to melt at all.

Can someone ever opened/removed the PPro lid to share some experience?

Many thanks

[cvandijk]

Isn't it better to sell this one and get a non-es to remove the lid? It's still a sample, in a bad shape but still rare.

[Marcin]

Neo, have you tried to prying with long but small flat tip screwdriver in same time of heating ? Max heat and patience and you should done it. PPro have big area and ceramic and huge goldcap is good heatsink. If you have vise/vice then it is good tool to lock it without contact of bottom side with surface.

[Neology]

[pixelmanca]

I de-lid ceramic chips all of the time and I've already de-lidded a bunch of Pentium Pros in the past and they are fairly easy to de-lid, if you use the correct tools and method...

To ensure that I don't get burned while de-lidding chips, I always wear a pair of heat resistant gloves, because after the chip is heated up, you can get badly burned if you touch it.

The kind of gloves that they sell in order to handle hot grills that you B-B-Q on work well, or you can spend more money and buy a pair of gloves that glass blowers use in order to handle hot molten glass.

I have a pair of those glass blower's gloves and I use them all of the time when de-lidding things and they work great to protect your hands from getting burned.

I use a metal baking pan with short walls all around it as a surface to de-lid chips on and because the heat will travel through the chip and then on through the metal baking pan, I always place the baking pan on a heat resistant surface to work on things.

I place the chip to be de-lidded in a corner of the metal baking pan, in order to "trap" it against 2 sides of the pan, so that it doesn't move around while heating it up.

For Pentium Pro chips, you must heat up the edges of the ceramic lid for 6 minutes, using a heat gun set on 600ºC.

When heating up the ceramic lid, make sure that the heat gun's nozzle is very close to the lid, just slightly higher than the pins on the chip and move the nozzle in a fairly slow and continuous motion all around the edges of the lid while you are heating it up.

After applying 6 minutes of continuous 600ºC heat all around the edges of the lid, set the heat gun down and quickly, so it doesn't cool down, take a pair of tweezers in one hand, while holding the chip in place against the 2 walls of the corner of the metal baking pan, with your other hand that is wearing a heat resistant glove, and then using the tweezers you will be able to flip the lid right off.

If the lid doesn't come right off, quickly use the heat gun again, before the chip cools down, and heat the ceramic lid up for an additional couple of minutes and then you will definitely be able to flip the lid off using the tweezers.

I've de-lidded a bunch of Pentium Pros and I have never had to heat any of them up more than the initial 6 minutes plus maybe an additional couple on minutes for a few of them, when the lid didn't come off after the initial 6 minute heating period.

After you get the lid flipped off, make sure you don't move the chip around any for around 20 - 30 seconds, because Pentium Pro chips use a LOT of solder to attach the lids and if you move the chip around much in the first 20 - 30 seconds after removing the lid, the molten solder will run all over the chip and then harden and be impossible to ever remove.

That happened to me once, when I picked up the chip right after getting the lid to come off, and then I tilted the chip and the hot molten solder ran all over the chip and got stuck in between a bunch of the pins.

Here's some pictures that show a couple of the Pentium Pro chips that I've de-lidded, the 2 big dies and the die bonding wires are very nice looking underneath the plain and boring lids:

(Click on the pictures to see the high resolution versions.)















If you have any questions about the de-lidding process for these Pentium Pro chips, or for any other chip as well, please feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to help you out.

[cuttingedgecs]

[rjluna2]

Nice job, pixelmanca

[H3nrik V!]

[Neology]

[Neology]

[pixelmanca]

[ph4nt0m]

It seems Intel used some kind of a non-eutectic solder alloy for these lids. Maybe to match thermal expansion of the ceramics. An industrial temperature controlled heat gun at 300ºC can do the job, but it takes some time.

[Birdman.]

I've opened lids of more than 300 different chips and desoldered lots of chips from boards with one heat gun and it's still working. That heat gun is also less expensive 500ºC model but many years old, so maybe they made better tools back then. The important thing while opening soldered lids of ceramic chips is to catch the time when solder melts and flows for the first time. If I can't push the lid off or at least get some blade or sharpened screwdriver under the lid when that happens, then the lid may get stuck with just some non-flowing solder left to held the lid in place.

I attach chips vertically in vise while I open them to reduce the chance of dropping the lid or splashing solder into the die cavity. That also gives me second chance after rotating the chip if solder flows down to one end of lid without getting the lid off yet. I can try opening the chip again when solder flows back or just try to get some tool among the thick solder layer on the bottom of the lid. Without any flowing solder left the lid gets stuck quite well and quite a lot of prying with sharp tool is needed before the lid lifts with the risk of slipping the tool on the die.

[Neology]

Hey Folks,
There is some progress made this afternoon.

The die cap had finally opened!! Wow

Firstly thanks for all your tips and they are very helpful.

There were few trials and a bit of effort to get there.

The good news it is open now
The bad news is the Cap has cracked.

[debs3759]

Nothing a little super glue and a lot of patience couldn't fix