applied to the boards?
> >From a board manufacturing standpoint, is the gold plated to the contacts
> before or after HAL?
>
>Most operations I've seen will NI/AU plate after HAL.  This is done with
either a selective deep gold process
or using a finger line.  The panels will be coated with a dry film resist
(photo tape), printed, and developed.
followed by a tin or solder strip and then plated.  The advantage of this
process is no solder on gold, no taping, no tape residue
etc....

However I've also seen small companies tape off or use a removable mask
coating over the gold then hal.
this process is more time consuming and really only works with finger
boards.

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