Carl, 'suggested' by whom? When someone tells me 'a few', I understand that to mean 'a lot'. My guess is that, if ENIG was good for 'a few' insertions, the ENIG chemistry people would be trying to sell it that way.  Thickness may not be the only consideration, either.  Composition of gold, as an alloy, will be different between the two materials.  Other Technetters can better address.  Louis Hart

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carl VanWormer
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 6:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] can ENIG be used for PCB card edge fingers?

We have a PCI Express card edge connector that accepts a PCB with Gold plated fingers.  The hard Gold plating costs extra money.  Since the board will only be plugged into the connector a few times, it was suggested that we just use an ENIG plated PCB.  The ENIG is a much thinner plating, compared to the hard Gold plating usually used for PCB edge connectors.  I've been unable to locate information on this choice.  Have any TechNetters tried this cheap approach?  I'm looking for success or failure stories to add to our discussions.

Thanks,
Carl



Carl B. Van Wormer, P.E., AE7GD
Senior Hardware Engineer
Cipher Engineering LLC
    21195 NW Evergreen Pkwy Ste 209
    Hillsboro, OR  97124-7167
    503-617-7447x303

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] 
______________________________________________________________________