Let me see if I understand the implied issue... If they are tenting the vias on one side I would suggest recommending another more reliable option to your customer. We plug the vias with soldermask here rather than 'tent' them for a couple of reasons... one, a single sided or broken tent is a moisture or chemical trap and can compromise or damage the board or assembly during assembly processing or even in storage. Two, from my own experience, we had a batch of tented boards make it into assembly with compromised tents, (ones that did not completely cover the holes on either side) and when we ran the boards through re-flow soldering we observed in inspection a large number of the vias expelling solder balls and contaminants from the holes as the heated gasses and moisture inside them expanded rapidly... (Kind of like little volcanoes)... We avoid the single sided tents for that exact reason... Plugging the holes completely is much more reliable and we have not had any problems since. Does that help at all? Best regards, Bill Brooks PCB Design Engineer, C.I.D.+ Tel: (760)597-1500 Fax: (760)597-1510 Datron World Communications, Inc. Vista, California -----Original Message----- From: Brad Saunders [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 2:02 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [DC] One sided issue Hello Folks, What are the reliability thoughts on a PCB configuration as follows: 013 PTH via ENIG finish (prior to soldermask) with one side without mask and the other a dryfilm soldermask. The board is approx .080 thick. Thanks, Brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------