Hi Leland, What about the location of the solderball? Doesn't that give you enough information? Where on the board was the solderball located? Or did the problem occur somewere else but the board? Jowan -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leland Woodall Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:54 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Birth of a Solderball TechNetters, Is there any possible way to determine the origin of a solder ball? We've had a failure because of one, and we're trying to determine whether it came from our SMT or wave soldering process. We use SAC305 at both, so using the SEM to determine alloy composition is not really helping. The ball itself is spherical with no "tails" and quite shiny in appearance. If we cross section the ball, will we see a difference in grain structure due to the differences in cool down rates? Is there anything else we can use or do? Thanks in advance for your help! Leland --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- This e-mail and any attachment is confidential and may be legally privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by returning this e-mail. Neways Electronics NV is not responsible for the improper or incomplete transmission of any e-mail, or for any delay in its receipt. --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------