Steve,
 
If I might offer my opinion, well some fact too...
 
An issue with XRF and trace thickness...the density of the copper being measured, while you can standardize the xray with your basic core/foil materials trying to duplicate the density of the plated copper will often throw off the count, making for erroneous readings...if you standardize your xray daily you've set it up against perhaps your copper standard, the copper foil but what is not known is the density of the plated copper.
 
Some say copper is going to remain a certain density regardless of how it was formed...and thats not true...grain structure, contaminates, chemistry imbalance, air...looking at the bath the wrong way...all may affect this...and thus your readings...
 
The xray is very useful as a process control tool, veryifying from lot to lot on known (standardized) raw material types. What I like to do is verify the xray data with a cross-sectioned measured sample for correlation...together they can really tell a lot about the process...
 
For greater accuracy in determining actual thickness, of course, microsection is the way to go...
 
Franklin
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