Hi gang! I know that Phil Hinton has provided some information to TechNet on the use of palladium surface finished assemblies for sour gas/downhole electronic applications. Those assemblies also utilized Sn96Ag4 solder alloys due to the harsh use environment. Collins has complete a series of investigations looking at electroless Ni/Immersion or Electroless Pd/ Immersion Au as a board finish. This Ni/Pd/Au is shown itself to be a "silver bullet" finish as it is both wirebondable and solderable - without having solder joint embrittlement issues. The finish is ideal of Chip On Board assembly applications. The biggest issue with this finish is board fabricator availability - not many users thus no incentive for the board fabricators to have the chemistry bath(s). Good Luck. Dave Hillman Rockwell Collins [log in to unmask] Don Vischulis <dvischulis@earth To: [log in to unmask] link.net> cc: Sent by: TechNet Subject: Re: [TN] Electro-Plated Ni/Pd/Au vs [ENIG] <TechNet@listserv .ipc.org> 06/24/2003 09:09 PM Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum."; Please respond to Don Vischulis Sorry to weigh in so late on this subject. In the high reliability world, there is at least one (maybe more) fabricator capable of plating a highly controlled Ni/Au/Pd finish. I never learned their name, but they competed with one of my former employers. If my memory is correct, this is the preferred finish for down hole drilling circuitry. This finish has also been specified on various high technology (high layer count, fine line, high reliability) products. Many of those (non-down hole) prints also permit ENIG as an alternate. My understanding is that for anything other than extreme operating environments there isn't much difference between the two finishes. Perhaps one of the other contributors with more high reliability experience would care to comment. Technet formerly had a member employed in the down hole instrumentation industry.....pity he isn't contributing any longer. Don Vischulis -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Scott Lefebvre Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 1:52 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Electro-Plated Ni/Pd/Au vs [ENIG] I have a new board shop promoting their Electro-Plated Ni/Pd/Au (hard or soft gold) surface finish over our existing [ENIG] boards. We have not had any issues with our current assemblies using [ENIG]. I am requesting any advice or information on Electro-Plated Ni/Pd/Au and if it would be worth switching to it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance. SCOTT --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------