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Repair catalog / Semiconductor recovery

The chip you can't buy may be on your rejected boards.

Component shortages and obsolete parts can stop a production line for months. We recover usable chips from rejected, surplus, and end-of-life boards, then clean, test, reball, and re-tin them so they go straight back into production.

Underside of a large BGA chip recovered at the SOFT-AID workshop, showing its solder-ball array
Recovered BGA — from our bench in Pune

What we do

From scrap board to placement-ready part.

  • No. 01

    Chip recovery from rejected & scrap boards

    Controlled removal of ICs and BGA packages from rejected, surplus, or end-of-life boards — so scarce and obsolete parts get back into production.

  • No. 02

    Cleaning, inspection & testing

    Recovered parts are cleaned of old solder and residue, inspected, and tested before they leave our bench.

  • No. 03

    BGA reballing

    Fresh solder balls on recovered or stored BGA chips, so they place and reflow like new parts on your assembly line.

  • No. 04

    Leaded → lead-free alloy conversion

    Reballing leaded BGA chips with lead-free solder, so older parts can go onto lead-free (RoHS) assembly lines and meet export requirements.

  • No. 05

    Re-tinning & re-alloying for long-stored parts

    Components that have sat in storage for years can lose solderability. We strip and re-tin their terminations so they solder reliably again.

  • Built on decades of BGA, SMT, and micro-SMT rework at our Pune bench since 1989.

The parts we handle

From full processors to chips smaller than a fingernail.

  • Recovered at our bench

    Real chips recovered from rejected boards in our Pune workshop — cleaned, inspected, and ready to reball.

  • Recovered processor-class BGA chip with a dense ball array
    Processor-class BGA
  • Recovered full-array BGA chip
    Full-array BGA
  • Recovered rectangular memory BGA chip
    Memory BGA
  • Recovered small BGA controller chip
    Small BGA controller
  • Tiny recovered wafer-level chip, a few millimetres across
    Wafer-level chip, a few mm across

  • BGA chips

    Recovered, cleaned, and reballed — or converted from leaded to lead-free solder.

  • Underside of a VIA Luke processor showing its full ball grid array
    Processors — legacy VIA Luke CPU
  • Two Samsung eMMC memory chips, one flipped to show its solder balls
    Memory — eMMC flash chips
  • Close-up of a small controller chip's underside with its solder balls
    Controllers — small-pitch BGA
  • Side view of a BGA chip soldered to a circuit board, showing the row of solder joints
    Solder joints — side view
  • X-ray image of a BGA chip on a board, showing the grid of solder balls
    Inspection — X-ray of solder balls

  • Leaded & leadless packages

    Recovered and re-tinned so their leads and pads solder like new parts.

  • QFP chip with fine-pitch gull-wing leads on all four sides
    QFP — quad flat pack
  • Tiny 28-pin QFN chip resting on a ruler, a few millimetres across
    QFN — leadless, a few mm across
  • SOIC chip with gull-wing leads on two sides
    SOIC — small outline IC
  • Toshiba memory chip in a thin TSOP package soldered to a board
    TSOP — thin memory packages
  • NEC V35 processor in a square PLCC package with J-leads
    PLCC — legacy processors
  • Two Lattice GAL chips in through-hole DIP packages
    DIP — through-hole ICs
  • Underside of an Intel Pentium III processor showing its grid of pins
    PGA — Intel Pentium III
  • Small three-lead SOT-23 surface-mount part
    SOT — small discrete parts

Don't see your part? If it has solder balls, leads, or pads, ask us — chances are we've handled something like it.

Who it's for

When waiting for new stock isn't an option.

Contract manufacturers

Your line has stopped because one component is out of stock or discontinued. Your rejected boards may already carry the parts you need.

OEMs with legacy products

You still build or support products whose chips are no longer manufactured. Recovered parts keep those products going.

Anyone holding old stock

Chips stored for years can lose solderability. Re-tinning and reballing make that stock usable again instead of scrap.

How it works

Four steps from shortage to restart.

  1. Step 01

    Tell us what's short

    Share the part numbers holding up your production and the rejected or surplus boards that carry them.

  2. Step 02

    Assessment

    We examine the boards and tell you which parts can be recovered, and in what quantity, before any work starts.

  3. Step 03

    Recovery & preparation

    Chips are removed under controlled heat, cleaned, then reballed or re-tinned in the alloy your process needs.

  4. Step 04

    Back to your line

    Parts are inspected and tested, then returned packed and ready for placement on your assembly line.

Production on hold?

Call us with your part numbers. We'll tell you whether they can be recovered.

+91 93701 48931

Mon–Sat · 9:00 am – 6:30 pm IST

Photo credits