Morning Marty, Along with "designed geometries" (knowing what your process should yield), a "designed reflow profile" should be developed. Bottom only terminations and in your case a ceramic component together pose a challenge but not out of reach. Without knowing your layout (i.e. location of Xceiver on substrate, other components, substrate thickness/layer count) several quick changes to the reflow profile could fix the problem: change orientation of substrate entering oven or slow the conveyor. It's apparent that not enough thermal energy is being transferred to the solder connections. To truly understand the local and global thermal characteristics of the reflow profile, a data logger with thermocouples should be used. I would bet the solder paste at the Xceiver is liquidous less than 15 seconds (look at the recommended reflow profile from the solder paste manufacturer -- some recommend above liquidous 45 - 90 seconds). If all else fails, require the component to be hand soldered -- this may cheaper in the long run. Hope this helps. Steve Sauer -----Original Message----- From: Marty Brooks [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 6:12 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] RF Assembly Issues Thanks everyone for your input. Steve - I think the bottom only terminations of the chip does pose a problem. Have other assembly shops had problems with devices like this and how have they overcome them? The chip is a ceramic base with gold plated terminations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------