Hi, I'm working on a board that has a shortage of real estate. By far the best placement (electrically, ease of assembly etc.) for a large through hole cap and a 14-pin SOIC on this board would be to have the IC directly underneath the CAP. The IC would get reflowed with the other SMDs, and then the CAP would get waved with the other THDs. I plan to add vias (and maybe even the silkscreen) on the bottom so that all the pads can be probed. My question is if this is a bad practice? Will the IC have contaminates trapped on it during assembly because of the CAP? Environmental issues aren't a concern, and there is no chance of anything shorting in this orientation. I hope it's OK to do this. Any answers are greatly appreciated. Thanks, Richard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DesignerCouncil 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 DesignerCouncil. To set a vacation stop for delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------