Hello all,

     I've got a question, how many of you out there check whether or not a fine 
pitch solder joint is good by dragging the tip of an exacto-knife blade or a 
steel pick across the foot of the leads?

     I have seen it done back in the past by a few inspectors maybe 4 or 5 years
ago, but not anytime recently...until I heard about it today. Is this still a 
common practice? 

     I'm pretty sure it's not the smart thing to do, but when you have someone 
call and tell you that the fine pitch solder joints on the board you built for 
them are insufficient because the leads come loose when they check them with an 
exacto-knife...they sure don't want to hear you tell them that they shouldn't be
dragging anything across the leads.

     I'm almost sure it's not one of the cases where sometimes a solder joint 
will become plastic during wave soldering and separate from the pad, some of you
may have seen that before. You know, where the fillet stays attached to the foot
of the lead with a nice wetting angle and all that stuff, but it's not attached 
to the pad...but I haven't actually seen the actual boards that supposedly has 
the insufficient solder yet, the customer has to bring them to me...

     Oh, another thing, these boards have all been through and passed ICT, a 
24-hour burn-in, and a functional test after burn-in. So it would seem to me 
that if I have a problem with my solder joints, it would have showed itself for 
sure in burn-in...

     But before they get here, I'd thought I'd ask and see if it's a common 
practice to rake fine pitch leads with a steel object...by the way, we're 
talking about .020" pitch QFP devices here...


(gimme' some ammo guys!) Thanks in advance!



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