Hi John -

I've had a fair amount of experience with solder filled vias for thermal
management and other reasons.  IMHO the solder fill has two shortcomings:
first, getting everything so solder fill equally, without having crowns that
will interfere with my ability to stencil the board; and second, the solder
fill always wants to reconfigure itself going thru reflow.  This can lead to
shorts/bridges, etc.

Recommend you consider filling the vias while they're still in the bare copper
state.  There are several conductive fillers available from Abelstik, DuPont
and others.  You may also need to consider a heat transfer adhesive under the
parts, once again there are a number of them out there, depending on what
thermal conductivity and gap fill capability you need.

Regards - Kelly

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