I am currently involved in Black Belt project which has focussed on Wavesolder defects. We wave 0805 SMT assemblies and the majority of the defects are shorts on SOIC's. Approximately 50% of the solder shorts are on the back 2 pins, with the remaining shorts being distributed randomly across the other pins. We do not use thief pads but have elongated the pad. The current size is 0.5mm / 2mm. Do we realy need thief pads because as we are seeing 50% of the solder shorts distributed randomly across all other pins? and is it possible to achieve sub 50 ppm (DPMO) for SOIC's? Has anybody tried using a pad design that increments in length as they progress to the back pins? I am looking to set up a test pcb that will optimise the pad design, any suggestions on other pad shapes. Any help on this problem would be greatly received. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------