Hi Aric,
There is no "minimum safe thickness of a solder joint"; it all depends on the
total design and what you do with it. As a start look at IPC-D-279, Design
Guidelines for Reliable Surface Mount Technology Printed Board Assemblies.
There is also a huge difference if you have "a solder joint between 2 plates
and/or a butt joint." With plates you may have to worry about the local
expansion mismatch, whereas butt joints have been shown to much less reliable
than either J-lead or gullwing joints, everything else being equal as work by
both Northern Telecom and Motorola has shown.

Werner Engelmaier
Engelmaier Associates, Inc.
Electronic Packaging, Interconnection and Reliability Consulting
23 Gunther Street
Mendham, NJ  07945  USA
Phone & Fax: 973-543-2747
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

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