Michael - we have the luxury of owning an Auger as well as running high volumes of ENIG through our plant. We purchased an Auger when we were running 20,000 panels/week of electroless Pd as this tool is exactly what you need for surface analysis. It will be of no use for determining the presence of black nickel as the definition of "black nickel" has yet to be accepted. Can it determine the amount of phos at the interface - yes, can it determine the amount of phos in the bulk - absolutely, both indicators of the quality of how the bath was controlled/maintained by the board supplier, and something that is cited as indicative of the presence of black nickel. Can it pick up other contaminants like Cu, etc in the deposit - yes. It will pick up Ni as you scan the Au surface. It can pick up residues associated with solder mask or dry film residues. You may wish also to expand it to use XPS and have them identify the relative oxidation states of the elements found - can be more informative than just identifying the presence of something - great for showing excessive rinsing/hold times post Ni plating that passivates the surface impacts solderability. If you wish to contact me off line with specifics. Regards Gerard O'Brien Photocircuits Corporation Co-Chairman 4-14 plating committee. -----Original Message----- From: Arbour, Michel [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 4:12 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] ENIG contaminant : Auger analysis recommended ? Hi We will be sending non solderable PCB for analysis. Goal is to detect black nickel, black pad, soldermask contamination before plating or other contaminant. Is Auger analysis with ion sputtering (SAM) an effective method to determine the contaminants. Is this method proven and accepted in the PCB industry for this task ? Michel Arbour --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------