Yee,
As others before me had already told, the Tetra-Etch is a brand name, being associated with the sodium-naphthalene etching process used on PTFE boards (I use Fluoro-Etch, for example. It has a bit different makeup and, I think, it has some advantages over Tetra-Etch). 
As you probably know, the stereoscopic build up of the PTFE chain makes it hard to wet and inert to most chemicals. The basics of the process is a surface reaction between the sodium(complexed with naphthalene) and the fluorine atoms of the PTFE. The reaction itself is a surface reaction, thus self limiting (you cannot over do it).
Since sodium is very well prepared to react with the oxygen and water in the surrounding air, this reaction must be taken place under inert conditions (such as a nitrogen blanketing). And YES, these materials are messy (and quite expensive, at least here in Israel). 

The good news is that the surface preparation is very good and you can get good plating quality. 

Feel free to contact me directly or via TechNet if you wish to discuss the matter further.

Regards,
Yehuda

    ************************************* 
    *          Yehuda E. Weisz              
    *  e-mail: [log in to unmask]
    *  Tel: 972-3-6342045                    
    ************************************

-----Original Message-----
From:   tgyee [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Fri, August 07, 1998 9:35 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        [TN] Tetra-Etch

     I am trying to get some information about the Tetra-etch process used
     to prepare a PTFE board before electroless plating or DM. Can someone
     with experience give me some opinions?

     Also, is there any other alternative?

     In advance, thanks.

     Regards
     Yee T.G.

################################################################
TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
################################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with