Do processors need drying before install?

[Ohwenzelph]

I ordered some processors from mouser awhile back and just opened the package because I had been away for months for work. I wanted to look at them but have not gotten to yet, because they are in a "moisture sensitive devices" bag. It's marked "level 1" which is the lowest level of moisture sensitivity. Don't know much about it but looked up the standard that was referenced. Some parts, if they have absorbed ambient moisture over time, will develope defects when heated for soldering. Like poping pop corn the tiny bit of moisture, having accumulated in a micro droplet at some place in the chip where disimilar materials meet, will expand suddenly under the soldering heat and fracture part of the part. So I wonder if some of the problems with occasional processors randomly malfunctioning in one or more processes for no good reason, might be related to this instead of just assuming we were being supplied with low grade 2nd class parts with a high-level of defects. Perhaps gently baking them for ? a few hours maybe just below boiling would dry them out enough to not have this problem when soldered. Of couse the extra handling then increases the risk of damage from static, so you'll want to be very careful if you do this. Don't know if this is applicable or not, but thought I would share the idea in case someone with some real expertise in the area can guide us.
73 jt aa1of

[TangoBravoMike]

Ohwenzelph, I have seen you replying with helpful answers to many people posting on the forum here. Thank you.

All I can offer is an opinion. If your components have been stored indoors in a reasonably comfortable indoor environment, I'd say no, don't bother with a drying-out step. If you live in a rain forest or your parts were dropped in a mud puddle, go ahead and dry them out. Or if it just makes you feel like you've done everything you can, give them a bake.

I would not go to a higher temperature than the maximum operating temperature. Maybe something like 120F to 140F. If they've had a mud puddle bath, wash them off in isopropyl alcohol. Electronic components are (almost) always safe with isopropyl alcohol. Then give them an hour or two in that very slow oven.

I bought some ATmega328p microcontrollers from Mouser a few months back, and yes, I saw those same warnings on the packing labels. My thought was that they're just covering their a$$e$ with excessive cautioning.

Just like you, I'm a LOT more diligent about the very real possibility of electrostatic damage to semiconductor parts. Microprocessors and microcontrollers are easily damaged. If you want to do the extra handling of a baking step, do be careful to avoid static buildup. I'll suggest a static dissipative wrist strap clipped to a metal cookie sheet. Pour your parts onto the sheet, bake, then with that wrist strap on again, pick them up with metal tweezers and get them right back into their anti-static bag. I habitually 'touch ground', touching my hand to the best available ground I have (e.g. antistatic work surface which is connected to electrical wiring ground) before picking up sensitive parts. Here you probably won't have that luxury. But the tweezers are connected to your hand which is 'grounded' to the cookie sheet. We're counting on the large metal area of the cookie sheet to spread any static charge over a large conductive surface, reducing the likelihood of zapping an easily-damaged pin on your microcontroller. This ain't Mil-Spec or even good industrial practice, but at least it's a good household effort at protecting your parts.