Doug, Never, ever quit, Did a little more looking into ball bonding, since I never really spent much time on that side of a solder joint. At http://extra.ivf.se/ngl/A-WireBonding/ChapterA2.htm#A2.2.2, they talk abut the Al-Al bonds, and matching the hardness of the wire to the pad for best strength... could that be the case, since the raw part should be of a different hardness than the sealed one, raw being softer? I also enjoyed http://www.eccb.org/pbps/tg/wirebond.htm. My point, at this point, is perhaps you altered the finely tuned bonding process. Any change in surface conditions caused by other-than-standard processes would tend to shift the final process from optimum, even if the specific step might be considered superior. How are the pads cleaned in production? With all I have looked at today, I do not see a DI wash step in any of the bonding process descriptions?! Makes ya wonder. In any case, somebody else will have to provide what you really want, which is an understanding of what exactly takes place at the ball to pad interface during the bonding process, and how DI impacts the one surface to upset that fine balance! Have a nice weekend, Steve Mikell -----Original Message----- From: Douglas Pauls [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, February 02, 2001 5:08 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] DI water and aluminum bond pads Mike brings up some good points, but I should be more specific. We are talking about the bonding of wires (e.g. wedge bonding or ball bonding) to the affected pads, not adhesive or organic material bonding. Can the high purity DI water be changing the characteristics of the pad such that I get poor bonding between the wire and the pad. Doug Pauls Rockwell Collins --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------