running chips in vacuum

If the vendor can't or won't provide specs, tell them you want a free hal f-dozen as crash-test dummies (they'll counteroffer four or five- that shou ld do you). Run them through as many STP/vacuum cycles as you can afford/ge t time on the vac system for. Feed them what signals you expect them to see (plus some spikes) and graph their output performance over time.

Sometimes the old saw "suck it and see" is literal. ;>)

and

Mine is four decades old.

I bet you don't get to clean and refill McLeod gauges. With mercury.

All I've got is stop playing footsie with the vendor, and test.

At least it's shiny- chemists *would* take corrosion susceptibility into account., if nothing else.

I especially like the unused chip pins hanging free. Tell me they're not connected to the substrate or something worse. Please.

No, those were designed by people that actually tried to use them before signing off on them.

Mark L. Fergerson