Nope .... those vias are filled with prepreg from the lamination cycle. It had nowhere to go ... it melts and floods up the hole, capillary action. The fabricator should have planed the surfaces to bring the prepreg back down level to the copper layer. Valerie stephen gregory <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]> 09/12/2005 07:02 PM Please respond to TechNet E-Mail Forum; Please respond to stephen gregory To: [log in to unmask] cc: Subject: Re: [TN] raised vias... Hi Everyone! I'm home now, but I can answer some of the questions. The picture of the board is as it was given to us. It hasn't been through reflow...this is how the bare board looks. The vias aren't filled.This is a 10-layer board that is made from IPC-4101/26 (GF) material. BUT, there is 5-layers on one side of a .045" thick copper core, and on the other side of the core is the other 5-layers. There is double-sided SMT on the board, and both sides have the "anthills" like you see in the picture. Pretty strange, huh? -Steve Gregory- "Brooks,Bill" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: I'm just passing the message on... it's Steve's board... Thanks, Bill Brooks --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------