Hi Dwayne,

You may want to consider other "Alternative Surface Finishes"  that could help
to solve your current problem.

Recently the IPC put on a conference of the above subject in Minneapolis. The
conference was very well attended and the information that was presented was
of a very high caliber.

One of the finishes was an Immersion Silver, made by AlphaMetals, called
AlphaLEVEL.  If you are interested you should contact Steve Beigle at
219-922-7990.  He can supply you with the necessary information on AlphaLEVEL.

Regards.

Frank Kurisu
SolderMask, Inc.


-----Original Message-----
From:   TechNet  On Behalf Of Niewiemski, Dwayne
Sent:   Wednesday, October 01, 1997 5:00 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        [TECHNET] Gold Immersion Plating

I am considering to switch the plating used on our PCB's from HASL to
gold immersion.  The reason I am considering making this change is to
improve the solder joint reliability of our 20mil components.

My company is a manufacture of RF products from 300MHz to 2.4GHz. When I
switch to gold immersion plating is there any electrical characteristics
I should be concerned about between gold immersion and HASL.  Is there
any types of testing I should do to verify I did not change the
performance of my products.

Any information would be helpful.


Thank you for you time.


Dwayne Niewiemski
Director of Manufacturing Engineering
Microwave Data Systems
Rochester, New York

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