Hi Chris, Are you sure you are talking about nanohardness and not microhardness? If it's nanohardness, then the measured values are completely different from a common (microhardness) method due to the nature of nanohardness measurements. Secondly (and even more important) on a plated sample (and particularly like ENIG with extremely thin layer of Au) the nanohardness readings will depend on the indentation load (read depth of penetration). In general, you can not draw a direct comparison between nanohardness measurements done on a thick (your hard gold case) and extremely thin (ENIG case) plating. Regards, Vladimir ------Original Message------ From: Chris Mahanna Sender: TechNet To: [log in to unmask] ReplyTo: TechNet E-Mail Forum ReplyTo: Chris Mahanna Sent: Nov 2, 2009 21:17 Subject: [TN] IAu hardness Please help a simple EE. From bare printed boards we are receiving nano-identation (hardness) values for hard (I assume Cobalt) gold in the 3000 MPa range. Quick and dirty conversion yields ~300 Knoop/Vickers; right? That sounds reasonable. BUT, we're getting 6500 MPA for the ENIG. Is this even possible? Does anyone know if it is an indication of poor IAu? Or maybe a poor nano-indentation tester? Thanks, Chris --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- SENTEC 11 Canadian Road, Unit 7. Scarborough, ON M1R 5G1 Tel: (416) 899-1882 Fax: (905) 882-8812 www.sentec.ca