Tin whiskers and other packaging problems

[ppppenguin]

............... with gold leads and gold plated cans and headers but a lot of their product was for military use so not so much mundane production. I threw away a bag with about 2kg of these when we moved, fool.

I hate to think what the gold alone was worth.

AFAIK most silicon transistors are made using a planar process which give a final product that're relatively immune to contamination problems. Obviously all has be nice and clean during manufacture otherwise the photolith and etching won't work too well.