We are planning to use an AGP-Pro connector (and a mating
card-edge connection on a add-in card) in a new design.
The AGP spec has the following information about plating
the contacts of the add-in card.

---------- Expansion Card Description
----------------------------------------
5.2.2 Contact Design
A requirement of 100 microinches (min) tin lead over nickel
underplate on solder tails, for all plating alternatives.
The following two plating alternatives are listed to allow
flexibility to connector suppliers. The absolute requirement
is that the plating must meet the qualification requirements
listed in Section 5.10.

Alternative 1: High strength copper alloy; 15 microinches
(min) gold plating over 50 microinches minimum nickel
plating.

Alternative 2: High strength copper alloy, 2 microinches
(min) gold flash over 15 microinches palladium-nickel
over 50 microinches (min) nickel underplate in critical
contact areas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---

We are ignorant of some of the details of plating, so we can't
tell if this means a total of 3 alternatives (one tin-lead,
the other two with gold and stuff), or just 2 alternatives,
both being gold and stuff over the tin-lead.

Questions:

1.  How many alternatives are there (2 or 3)
2.  If gold is an option, what could we expect to pay (extra)
    for gold plating on an AGP card-edge connector?
3.  Is gold required for long term connection reliability?
4.  Is there a requirement for the plating on the board to
    match the plating on the connector?
5.  Are there any other questions I should be asking to stay
    out of trouble?

Thanks,
Carl



Carl Van Wormer
Cipher Systems (Day Job)
Testec (home of the ShortSniffer short circuit finder)
www.testecvw.com

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