SNOAA35F April 2019 – December 2024 LM2901 , LM2901B , LM2901B-Q1 , LM2903 , LM2903-Q1 , LM2903B , LM2903B-Q1 , LM339 , LM339-N , LM393 , LM393-N , LM393B , LM397 , TL331 , TL331-Q1 , TL331B
Texas Instruments is implementing a new single-side roughened leadframe. These leadframes are etched prior to plating to purposely roughen the lead surface. Roughening improves the solder adhesion (solderability) of the leads.
This roughening can make the leads look tarnished, corroded, or take on a gray or greenish appearance compared to the traditional smooth plated leadframes.
The darker or "tarnished" appearance is due to refraction of light on the rough surface as opposed to the traditional "shiny" mirror-like smooth plating. The light color and spectral purity can influence the appearance. Figure 5-2 shows a rather extreme close-up example of a roughened leadframe.
While the DIP package is shown as an example, the roughening is occurring across multiple package families (SC-70, SOT-23, SOIC, SOP, MSOP, VSSOP, TSSOP, as well as leadless packages).
The roughened leadframes go through the same plating process as the smooth leadframes and have passed or exceeded all the required JEDEC and AEC package qualifications. These roughened leadframes are being adopted across TI products and are not just exclusive to the LM339 family.