RF, power & vintage · Tier D

Chip antennas (LTCC ceramic)

The grade is fine but the collection is hopeless — a pound of chip antennas is roughly ten thousand parts you will never accumulate.

Ag 6–18 g/lb

eBay typical$20–120per lb

Refiner pays$5per lb

Metal in it$19.0per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencelowof the yield figures

How to spot it

Tiny white, cream or beige ceramic blocks, commonly 3216 or 5×2 mm, sitting alone at a board edge in a keep-out area with no ground plane under them, at the end of a 50-ohm trace from the radio. Johanson, Yageo, Fractus, Pulse and Taiyo Yuden. Easy to mistake for an oversized MLCC — the giveaway is the isolated board-edge placement.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Silver	6–18 g/lb	calculated — LTCC co-fires silver internal conductors at a few weight percent; no per-part assay published

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $19.0 per pound of contained metal — Silver 10 g = $19.0. A refiner paying $5 returns about 26% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Hot air 280–320 °C

Hot air at 280–320 °C and tweezers; they release instantly. Too small for hand processing — bulk them, crush and leach with nitric.

Hazards

🪚 Fibreglass and board dust

NEVER dry-cut boards indoors without extraction.

☠ Lead — dust more than fume

NEVER dry sweep or use compressed air on a scrapping bench. HEPA-vac or wet-wipe only.

Before you scrap it

Johanson and Fractus 2.4 GHz chip antennas sell $0.50–2 each new and are wanted by makers, so a small tube of pulls beats any refining route.

The common trap

Grams per pound is the wrong lens for parts this small. You'd need thousands of boards to build one pound, and the silver in that pound is worth about $19.

Questions

How much gold is in chip antennas (ltcc ceramic)?

Silver: 6–18 g/lb. At current spot that is about $19.0 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify chip antennas (ltcc ceramic)?

The grade is fine but the collection is hopeless — a pound of chip antennas is roughly ten thousand parts you will never accumulate.

How do you remove chip antennas (ltcc ceramic) safely?

Hot air at 280–320 °C and tweezers; they release instantly. Too small for hand processing — bulk them, crush and leach with nitric.

Is chip antennas (ltcc ceramic) worth more working than as scrap?

Johanson and Fractus 2.4 GHz chip antennas sell $0.50–2 each new and are wanted by makers, so a small tube of pulls beats any refining route.

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