Hi Everyone, I have a board with a 357 pin PBGA. Each pad has a short etch leading to an adjacent via. Currently, the fabrication drawing calls for each via to be plugged. The assembly process for this board does not contain a wave solder step and the test engineer assures me that plugging the vias is not necessary for vacuum during incircuit testing, so is there some other reason for plugging these vias? They are plugged with soldermask, and I feel like we are unnecessarily introducing potential problems into the process. Thanks in advance for your opinions. Paul Black Manufacturing Engineer Kronos [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------