At the risk of sounding facetious ..............   It Depends ........

        on the storage conditions ( Temp., humidity)
        on the cleanliness of the board ( the cleaner the better SIR,
MIR etc.)
        on the packaging ( open , hermetic, hermetic with desiccant)
        on the thickness and condition of the plating
        on the assembly process ( strong or weak flux)

        the ultimate shelf life is how long you can store them and still
achieve a quality level acceptable to you and your customer when they
are processed.

        I always thought  1 week less than annual physical inventory,
was a good time frame. If I still had boards in inventory after 12
months my finance man was going to go postal for tieing up capital with
no return and not ordering correctly ........... and well we know how
ugly that can be........

russell. smith @ cibasc.com

 ----------
From: Neil Atkinson
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Gold Finish
Date: Monday, July 13, 1998 3:04PM

Microsoft Mail v3.0 (MAPI 1.0 Transport) IPM.Microsoft.Mail.Note
From: Neil Atkinson
To:  [log in to unmask]
Subject:  Gold Finish
Date: 1998-07-13 15:04
Priority: 3
Message ID: 37C45661391AD211BFEC0060520193AF
Conversation ID: Gold Finish


------------------------------------------------------------------------
---- --

I've have a query regarding shelf life of a Cu Ni Au finish on PCBs.  So
far
I've heard everything from 6 months to 2 years can anyone out there
clear
this confusion up.

Neil Atkinson

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