The board is microwave, with 10 micron lines which are 20 to 25 micron thick, the only way i could get it to plate was using gold, copper proved to be to bumpy way to many noduels and clumps, the surface must be smooth for the frequency, I also had to use very little oxide foot below to get the initial thin 2 micron copper to stick to the prepreg, And Ni was out because of to high a frequency, so the board was not originaly to be golds just turned out that way, It has bga, smt and wire bond on it so I needed to be able to advise the assemblers how to try and solder it, Im not down to the 10 micron yet ( 20 now) but will be investigating a beter laser. and to boot the micro vias are only 30 microns. a fun but tough board good thing its only 1 inch square. bob --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------