Doug, You have arcing going on. We have seen this before. Charges build up and you get a lightening bolt from the electrode to the board. I suggest you turn down the power by half and extend your cycle time. good luck, Chuck Brummer l 3M Manufacturing Engineer 3m Electronic Solutions Division--Flexible Circuits 8357 Canoga Ave. l Canoga Park, CA 91304-2605 (818) 734-4930 [log in to unmask] l www.3m.com l www.3mFlex.com From: Douglas Pauls <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Date: 08/16/2010 06:07 AM Subject: [TN] plasma question Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]> Good morning all, For those of you who have used plasma etching on circuit assemblies, I have a question. One of our operators observed "sparking" through the plasma chamber viewport and a transistor was fried. Any idea what causes this? First time we have seen this. Doug Pauls ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- 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 email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------