Hi Chris,



Are you sure you are talking about nanohardness and not microhardness?



If it's nanohardness, then the measured values are completely different from a common (microhardness) method due to the nature of nanohardness measurements.



Secondly (and even more important) on a plated sample (and particularly like ENIG with extremely thin layer of Au) the nanohardness readings will depend on the indentation load (read depth of penetration).



In general, you can not draw a direct comparison between nanohardness measurements done on a thick (your hard gold case) and extremely thin (ENIG case) plating.



Regards,



Vladimir

------Original Message------

From: Chris Mahanna

Sender: TechNet

To: [log in to unmask]

ReplyTo: TechNet E-Mail Forum

ReplyTo: Chris Mahanna

Sent: Nov 2, 2009 21:17

Subject: [TN] IAu hardness



Please help a simple EE.



From bare printed boards we are receiving nano-identation (hardness) values for hard (I assume Cobalt) gold in the 3000 MPa range.  Quick and dirty conversion yields ~300 Knoop/Vickers; right?

That sounds reasonable.



BUT, we're getting 6500 MPA for the ENIG.  Is this even possible?  Does anyone know if it is an indication of poor IAu?  Or maybe a poor nano-indentation tester?



Thanks,

Chris





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