David,
 When I was at AT&T we always suppressed the Inner layer pads
that were non-functional, at our location.  They made a lot of production
product that worked flawlessly.  When I changed jobs to Zenith Electronics,
the work I did was mostly low volume, test boards to support HDTV.
suppressing the inner layer pads seemed to cause problems during rework
of the PC Boards, when I did not suppress the inner layer pads the rework
problems were eliminated.  So I do agree with your 2 points, it just depends
on your product type and quantity.

Karl Bates
[log in to unmask]

>I am currently debating the pro's & con's of suppressing  non-functional
>inner layer pads and have found our PCB fabricators have differing views
>on which is best. Here are the 2 views.

>1.  Suppressing inner layer pads will give a better drilled hole, and so
>    will produce a more consistant & cleaner plated hole.

>2.  NOT suppressing inner layer pads will produce a stronger & more >    reliable PTH less prone to failiure.


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