Annie,

Next to my favorite main board manufacturer (Tyan), Matrox is my (and so many others) favorite
graphics card maker. To hear you are having these difficulties makes me run to my G-200 and check
the solder joints, on the one hand, and congratulate you for your honesty and courage on the other.

I will send you a couple of pretty/ugly pictures as x-sections, if you like, showing some
possibilities. Moisture may be an issue. Other issues may include glass fiber protrusion into plated
hole walls (not effectively removed after etch back) acting as a conduit for gas escape while also
reducing plating thickness below that specified.

With that much copper inside the MLB, you and your fabricator might be experiencing other problems.
For you, as you well know, there is a serious thermal barrier to effective solder process
management. Plating quality/thickness, or?, may play a part. Other issues might include certain
laminate conditions as micro voiding or larger than specified voids in the thermal evaluation area.
However, I would bet you are using a very good fabrication facility that could render much help.

Are you using quality conformance test circuitry? How do your x-sections look as received and after
thermal stress?

Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see what this product turns out to be,

Earl Moon

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