Thanks Dale From the other responses I've gotten and yours,,,No-clean unlikely the issue.. Several have mentioned the spacing. Most of the failures have not actually been the caps but the driver transformer connected to them. Our test eng thinks that possibly the leakage is increasing the load current (not enough to burn the part) and overloading the transformer (which burns up and causes a cascade fail of the input transistors connected to the primary). The backlights them selves are 6mA typical draw and the circuit is rated for 6mA. _____________________________ Andre Leclair Process Engineer Ansen Corporation 315-393-3325 ext 293 315-393-7638 FAX -----Original Message----- From: Dale Ritzen [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 2:39 PM To: 'TechNet E-Mail Forum'; 'Andre Leclair' Subject: RE: [TN] Arching or Current Leakage Hello Andre, Over time we have found the no-clean process we use to be electrically inert. It neither promotes nor retards arcing or current leakage across the top of an assembly. I don't know what no-clean products you specifically use, but as a rule I would say that if you are using a no-clean solder/flux/paste, you should be safe in saying that it's not a root cause of the failure the customer is seeing. I would look at component spacing and possibly isolating the leads from each other if dead or burned caps are the symptom of the failure. One long shot (very long shot) is that there might be a repeated under-etch (near short) condition on the PCB traces leading to this circuitry. I have seen this in one incident only, but it was finally found by following traces back away from the components in question. And it was consistent from board to board. Again, very long shot... Dale Ritzen Quality Manager Austin Manufacturing Services -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Andre Leclair Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 1:12 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Arching or Current Leakage We have a customer that has a portion of a circuit which randomly fails. The circuit is a backlight driver (500volt 6mA). The output caps are 0.100 spacing of the terminals. The process used is No-clean. Can the No-clean contribute to failures of the circuit (ie promote arching or current leakage across the body of the output caps). ??? --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------