We have been back and forth on this issue, and have lived with both
based on vendor requirements. For us cost is not the driving problem.
Most of our boards need gold for pad on pad connections. We have had
issues in the past where the LPI soldermask has not adhered well to the
immersion gold. Now where possible, we try to only do SMOBC, OSP and
selective gold. This causes more process steps which in turn may drive
the cost up over straight immersion gold. We definently like the OSP
over immersion gold for solderabilty. Nice bright solder joints, no
embrittlement. OSP has a shelf life from 6 months to a year and needs to
be handeled carefully, i.e. gloves... which may affect your decision.

Regards,

-Shawn Utz

Meehan, Alexis wrote:
>
> My company is investigating the use of entec versus gold immersion. Our
> assembly
> house is pushing for gold immersion, however, I believe entec is lower in
> cost, right?
> What are your experiences with either of these processes? Thanks in advance.

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