I agree that OSP has a lot of virtues and it has improved greatly in the last 10 years. Particularly in terms of storage, thermal cycles, less dependence upon reflow in an inert atmosphere. However, in any application, the post-assembly environment has to be taken into consideration. In Barbīs application, OSP was considered but the product has to survive in potentially humid environments and thus the long term impact on reliability has to be taken into consideration. There is still no panacea surface finish for the industry - at least not yet. Everything is application specific. Phil Zarrow ITM Consulting Durham, NH USA www.ITMconsulting.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e 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 or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------