Another factor that might have raised the cost of the assembled boards in
production (besides the not in stock issue that James raised)...

Equipment used in production assembly rely on & require vision recognition
systems in order to verify board size, shape, orientation, & local fiducials
for BGAs & other fine pitch pitch parts. These vision systems typically use
levels of contrast to determine locations & find landmarks.  With a red
soldermask, the vision systems settings typically need to be tweaked in
order to be successful. You could have been paying for extra setup time to
make this happen.

Joe

Joe Morrison

Chairman, International Cadence User Group

Director of Technology
ADIVA Software
601 Gates Road, Suite W1
Vestal, NY 13850

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http://www.adiva.com
607-727-1387
fax: 607-231-4595