Dear TechNetters:

My company recently produced bare PCBs with ENIG finish for a client who
now wants HASL. I can't strip the ENIG and the routed PCBs are too small
for HASL processing (conveyor or dip).

Here's my client's concern:
1. ENIG will poison his solder pot.
2. ENIG will introduce risk of thru-hole component attachment failure

On the poison solder pot issue, my client will only assemble 100 PCBs every
30-days. Each PCB has a total solderable surface area of 6.94 sq." At an
average measure of 4.05uI of gold I can't see the drag-in being an issue of
concern. The small amount of gold introduced to the solder pot will likely
be diluted into nothingness by solder replenishment across the next 30-days.

On the embrittlement issue, virtually everything I find in the TechNet
archives (and elsewhere) concerns SMT designs and applications. Here again
the concern is with an all thru-hole design with no SMDs in the build. If
it's important, the nickel thickness averages 118uI.

Q1: Is there a real risk to solder pot poisoning?

Q2: Is there a real risk that PTH components are going to unplug due to
embrittlement?


Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated -

Robert Lazzara
VP, Business Development
Circuit Connect, Inc.

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