Pat,

It certainly must be lonely at the top, as in outer space, with the stuff you are doing. I use
ANSI/J-STD-001 and its table 5-1 as a guide to determine whether a specific contamination
level is exceeded in the solder. For applications using immersion gold, in a thickness not
exceeding 7 millionths", the rule is not violated for most SMT solder paste and joints.

Does 5 microns exceed the limit when corelated with your solder amount and the aforementioned
rule? If so, do as must be done and remove the gold in a solder pot (not contaminated with too
much gold - of course). Then, perform the soldering operation safely while expecting initial
solder joint acceptability, and long term reliability without embrittlement and subsequent
failure.

Earl Moon

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