Jacob HASL has a very good solderable surface. The coplanarity problem can be reduced by using new, horizontal plating equipment. We made trials approx. 3 years ago where were able to produce 50 boards with pitch 0.3 mm QFP's as well as BGA's without problems. Well, 50 boards are no reference for mass production. However, I believe it's possible. One point that has to be looked at with these plating process is the fact that the solder layer on the copper is quite thin ( I don't have the numbers in mind ). This means that growth of intermetallics might become a problem when storing the PCB's over a long period. On the other hand we used some of our test boards, left over from the project, to play around and they could be hand soldered without a problem ( not the 0.3 mm of course ). But maybe the cold climate in Switzerland slows down the growth of intermetallics. Have a nice weekend Guenter Guenter Grossmann Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Testing and Research EMPA Centre for Reliability 8600 Duebendorf Switzerland Phone: xx41 1 823 4279 Fax : xx41 1823 4054 mail: [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------