Background
In July of 2017 Coolaudio produced a run of it's popular V2164M Quad VCA chips. This batch of chips were oriented incorrectly inside the SOIC
device package - the die was rotated 180 degrees. The resulting device is fully functional, but the pin 1 indent on the SOIC body is
actually on pin 9. This device had been in short supply for several months so Coolaudio choose to release the chips with some
additional markings (see below).
Many of our customers were anxious to get these devices to meet production and prototyping schedules, so we arranged to take
delivery of our pending order. We offered our pre-order customers the option of taking the rotated devices or waiting until the
next scheduled production run (October of 2017). Most pre-order customers chose to take the rotated devices. We starting shipping
the rotated devices on July 14 with a warning sticker and additional notes on our summary data sheets (see photos below).
Device Markings
Coolaudio marked the rotated devices with a pin 1 "dot" (small white filled circle) on the true pin 1 corner. When installed using the dot as
the pin 1 designation the device will function normally in a circuit. As this 16-pin package is fairly small it can be difficult to see
the small white dot without magnification. The "V2164M" and Coolaudio logo are consistently placed, so pin 1 is in the lower left when
the lettering is horizontal (see diagram below).
The assembler must take care to use the dot to orient the device
on the PCB and ignore the indent.
Packaging and Labeling
Shipments of this device from CabinTech Global carry a warning sticker on the anti-static enclosure bag.
Also, we enclose a summary data sheet in which an additional note is provided to explain the correct device orientation.
