We have recently experienced an unusual occurence in four lots of 
     hardware. We have seen lifted pads, cracked internal foil (n-1) and 
     plating separations. The boards have ranged from eight to twelve 
     layers and run approximately 0.066 to 0.074 inch thick. These are not 
     unusual or complex designs just standard plated-through hole 
     technology. We are using difunctional 0.055 and 0.012 laminate 
     predominantly one ounce, one board two ounce. 
     
     We procure our laminate with HTE on all internals and standard ED for 
     externals. We had made this change approximately 6-7 years ago and 
     have not seen a crack since on internals. We tried everything under 
     the sun and couldn't get the HTE to crack. As most of you know we are 
     experiencing a labor dispute and our production has been limited. We 
     have seen this on small number of lots but if we were in full 
     production we could have a major disaster. 
     
     During microsectioning we have also seen some grain structure variance 
     in the appearance of the HTE copper. The laminate and foils have been 
     verified to be HTE according to the vendors. 
     
     We have performed Tg testing (133 to 141), plating ranges from 0.016 
     to 0.023 in the hole, elongation from 16.0 to 20.0%, tensile strength, 
     temperature exposure and we can find no concrete defect cause.
     
     The vendor has reported a phenomenon "Stress Grain Boundary Condition" 
     which they are looking for the report.
     
     Does anyone have a input on the causes, identification or corrective 
     action for this "condition"???? I really could use some input and 
     assistance. 
     
     Please respond ASAP!!!
     
     Boeing Defense and Space Group
     
     Roxanne Tovey
     (206) 773-7336