What is your current incoming inspection process for the flex circuits? Are you requiring the board supplier to perform 100% electrical testing or AOI? As for the registration issues I think a one up pallet and one circuit perform better throughout the process (depending on size and complexity) I am guessing that because you noted that there is a fine pitch component and gold it is somewhat complex. Do you have your boards numbered so you can verify the location on the manufacturing array? If so have you noticed a trend they may lead to a process problem, on the board supplier's side? For example you notice that a certain number of boards from a specific area print paste and place better then others? If you think your pallet may be the problem, loose fit, try placing double sided tape on the PCB and run it through your SMT line. If the board is shifting you should see the parts drifting or not being placed correctly on the board. Ted T. Hello All, I have a question regarding a strange situation regarding reflow soldering ENIG finish boards. We have seen a few boards that have what seems to be gold "washing " down between pads and creating shorts. This seems to come and go. This is a flex circuit that is placed on a pallet to go through our SMT line. One other bothersome issue is that we are having difficulty getting proper solder stencil alignment across all the flexes in the pallet. I am pushing to have the flex "panelized" from the vendor to increase positional accuracy but the jury is still out on that. I suspect these two issues are related. If the solder gets deposited "off pad"slightly could the washing process be moving some of the gold in between pads? I attached an example. Has anybody come across this? If so, what was the solution? Thanks, Dave Connitt CID+ --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 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 15.0 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 15.0 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 -----------------------------------------------------