Not every dot on an IC means pin 1

⚠️ Not every dot on an IC means pin 1.

Right?

That's what you automatically assume when you place hundreds of components every day. Last week it almost went wrong for us.

An IC had a dot that looked exactly like a pin-1 marking.

Only... according to the datasheet it turned out to be a mold mark, and the chamfered corner was the pin-1 mark.

The IC was already on the ProtoPCBA when our customer noticed something in the ProtoPhoto we always send before shipping.

"Uhm, I think this one is placed incorrectly."

And sure enough.

So what do you do? 📦 Quickly intercept the shipment 🔧 Rotate the IC 90 degrees 🚀 Ship the board again

It took some extra work. But it saved an entire new ProtoPCBA.

Nice reminder: not every dot means pin 1.

And that's exactly why we always send a ProtoPhoto first.

Has anyone else ever had a "pin-1 moment" like this? 😅

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