The soldermask was so thin as to be non-existant in many places on
the board.  It looked like the board was contaminated prior to the
soldermask application or the soldermask liquid itself was bad.
We had caps and resistors shorting to traces THROUGH the soldermask
even though when examined under a microscope there was no apparent
break in the mask.

We have allowed the board shop to use either matte or glossy in the past
and have had no problems with either.  This just happened to be a bad
batch at the worst possible time (mult-million dollar order being held
up waiting for boards) and management looking to "fix" things.  The only
thing they could see was the difference in masks so they decide to make
the bad one look like the good one and everything will be OK... sigh...

I guess what I'm really looking for is enough information on the different
types and their methods of specification so that I can make an informed
decision...

Thanks for your help,
[log in to unmask]
Don Walker

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