Hi, Eric, I haven't experiences it, but I've certainly heard about it from the company that makes the X-Ray machinery we use. They did say that (with their equipment) exposure would have to be quite prolonged to cause the problem though. They did at least warn us when we asked the question about X-Ray hardening or other damage. Peter Eric Castonguay <[log in to unmask]> 29/05/2003 08:03 PM Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]> Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum."; Please respond to Eric Castonguay To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: DUNCAN Peter/Asst Prin Engr/ST Aero/ST Group) Subject: [TN] X-ray beam damaging flash memories Hi guys, Never heard about this one in 4 years in the telecom industry. Our current supplier of flash memories found a very interesting reason why we are having problems with their parts. The strength of X-ray being used by the CM on our cards for 5-dx analysis is too strong, they said. Industry standard is 1K rad max I was told. Going above it causes issues with the analog section of the programming in the die. There were able to tweak the registers & re-test them and had no problems with the chips. They also tried re-exposing them and suceeded in repeating the problem. I asked if we could do anything to fix boards that have already been x-rayed and they said that this cannot be done once the parts are assembled on the boards. Considering that Flash is not the only component with an analog section in it, I think that it would be a good idea to investigate the x-ray equipment, strength & techniques at our CM, even if they use a standard Agilent 5DX machine. But first I want to hear if some of you ever met this problem before. Thanks. Eric --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- [This e-mail is confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify us immediately; you should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person. Thank you.] --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------