Hi Earl, I sure do not see it the same way--"My concerns start with HASL as a wasted, mostly detrimental process as a major contributor to IMC growth". I have yet to see a solder joint fail because of 'IMC growth,' with the possible exception of assemblies that were forgotten in the reflow oven over lunch. I much prefer to see thick IMC layers than inadequately wetted soldering pads, and with HASL, as they say: "Nothing solders to solder like solder." Werner Engelmaier --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------