What a 5962 Number Tells a Buyer in Ten Seconds

A pallet comes up on a Tuesday. The description says “assorted ICs, military surplus, sold as is.” The photo is a tray of ceramic packages on a concrete floor, taken with a phone. A line of text is readable on most of them. It starts with 5962.

Two people look at that photo. A scrap dealer sees gold lids and gold leads and bids by the pound. A buyer who reads the line sees a drawing number, a screening class and a lead finish, and starts thinking about who still needs the part and what paperwork is in the box.

Same tray, two prices. This piece is about reading the line.

I should say what I am and am not. I have never worked a stockroom or stood at a counter. I ran a digital agency for close to 18 years, and now I use AI to fix real problems inside businesses. What I know is how work moves through an office and where it stalls. I have put the documented facts in one place because the people who read listings all day were usually not trained on them.

The number, piece by piece

A Standard Microcircuit Drawing number looks like this. The format is real; the specific number is a made-up example.

5962-8761501QXA

• 5962 is the federal supply class for microcircuits. Every SMD number starts with it.
• The dash is a placeholder. A letter there instead (M, D, R, F and a few others) is a radiation hardness assurance level. A dash means none was claimed.
• 87615 is the drawing number. The first two digits are the year the drawing was issued, so this one dates from 1987.
• 01 is the device type within that drawing.
• Q is the device class. This is the letter that moves the price.
• X is the case outline. A table in the drawing says what X means for this device.
• A is the lead finish. A is hot solder dip, B is tin-lead plate, C is gold plate.

The drawing is a public document issued by DLA Land and Maritime. Any qualified manufacturer builds to it, so one SMD number can appear on parts from several makers. Pull it before you bid. It is free.

The class letter is where the money is

The class says how hard the part was screened before it left the factory, and that sets who can use it.

• V is space level under the QML system (MIL-PRF-38535). It is the current name for what the older system called Class S.
• Q is military level under the same system. It corresponds to the older Class B.
• M means the manufacturer built the part to the requirements of MIL-STD-883 without being a QML supplier for it. That is a claim by the maker, not a government qualification.
• Older parts carry the older numbering, M38510/ followed by a slash sheet number and a class letter of B or S. Same two levels, older rulebook.

JAN, JANTX, JANTXV and JANS on discretes

Transistors, diodes and other discrete semiconductors follow MIL-PRF-19500 and carry the JAN brand instead of a 5962 number.

• JAN: a qualified part from a qualified line, with lot level testing.
• JANTX: “testing extra.” Every part is screened, including burn-in, not just a sample.
• JANTXV: JANTX plus a visual inspection of every die before the package is sealed.
• JANS: the space level, with the tightest screening and lot acceptance.

Small packages shorten the brand to J, JX, JV and JS.

What QML and /883 actually certify

QML stands for Qualified Manufacturers List. Under MIL-PRF-38535 the government qualifies the manufacturer and its production line, not each part number, and DLA publishes the list.

A part number ending in /883 is different. It says the maker processed the part to the test methods of MIL-STD-883, usually at the Class B level: burn-in, temperature cycling, seal tests, electrical test at temperature extremes. It is a manufacturer’s statement of compliance, not a QML qualification, unless the QML mark is also there.

Why the package is ceramic and the leads are gold

Screened parts for military and space use are almost always hermetic. The body is ceramic, the lid is metal or ceramic, and the seal is glass or solder, so moisture cannot reach the die over decades of service.

Gold is on the leads, on the lid seal ring, and inside on the die attach and bond wires. That is what the scrap buyer is pricing. Ceramic gold-lead ICs are a known category in precious metal recovery, bought by the pound, and the dealer does not care what the drawing says. The program buyer cares about nothing else. A sustainment contract for an aircraft, a ship or a satellite designed in the 1980s still needs the part the drawing describes, at the class it specifies, with paperwork, by the unit.

Where date codes and lot codes fit

The four-digit date code reads year and week: 9834 is the 34th week of 1998. On screened parts the lot date code is the week the package was sealed, and it matters more than on commercial parts.

• The screening and lot acceptance data belong to the lot, and the certificate of conformance references it. Separate the part from its lot and you separate it from its evidence.
• Some programs cap how old a date code may be. The cap varies by program.

A tray with mixed date codes is several lots in one box. Count, photograph and quote it that way.

What a marking cannot prove

Everything above is a claim printed on a package. A marking cannot prove:

• That the part is authentic. Markings get sanded off and relasered, and commercial die get sold in ceramic bodies with a class letter they never earned.
• That the part was never installed. Solder on the leads, bent leads and scratched lids say pulled, whatever the mark says.
• How the part was stored and handled since it left the factory.
• That the screening paperwork still exists anywhere.

Testing can address the first two. Under AS6081, the SAE standard for counterfeit avoidance at independent distributors, parts without trace go through inspection and testing: visual inspection, marking permanency, lead finish analysis, X-ray and electrical test. A passed report says the part is physically what the mark says it is.

Testing cannot address the last two. It cannot recreate the lot record or turn an untraceable part into a traced one. A tested part with no trace sells as exactly that, to buyers who accept that grade. The marking tells you what to go looking for. It is not the proof.

Picture a Monday (made up)

Before. A buyer at a 40 person distributor skims a surplus listing: “lot of vintage ICs, ceramic, 300 pcs.” The photo is small, he has a dozen RFQs to answer by noon, and he moves on. A scrap dealer wins the lot by the pound.

After. The same buyer has a one-page reading of the mark beside the monitor and a list of the 5962 numbers his customers asked for last quarter. He zooms the photo, reads a drawing number, a Q and a C for gold leads, and finds two buyers on the list. He bids above scrap and below unit price, planning to test the lot and sell it as tested, no trace. Most weeks it is not a find.

What has to be in place first

• Someone who can read the full mark, not just the number: class, case, lead finish, date code.
• A test lab, or your own bench and an AS6081 procedure, before you buy anything without trace.
• Your own request history by part, so you know which drawings your customers ask for. Markings without demand are just gold.

Guardrails worth keeping

• Describe parts as “marked” a class, never “screened to” a class, unless you hold the paperwork.
• State the trace grade on every quote and every listing.
• Do not mix date codes in a bin, a count or a quote.
• Never bid on the marking alone. Bid on the marking, the demand and the price of the test.

How you’ll know it’s working

• Lots bid on that were listed with no part number.
• Share of those lots that passed inspection and testing.
• Price realized per unit against the scrap value of the same tray.
• Requests for screened parts quoted from stock this quarter versus last.

Where I’d start

Take the last 90 days of RFQs, pull out every line that carries a 5962, M38510 or JAN prefix, and count them by part. That short list is the only one you need to read at a glance for now.

If you want the request list built for you as a first step, the free week on the Hunt page starts there.