Cost differences will vary depending upon your PCB fabricator and the methods they use for liquid photoimageable solder mask. If they're using an electro-static or air spray process then the difference in cost won't be much if any, and only reflect the difference in raw material cost. If they're using curtain coat then they will have to do your boards using screen printing instead. Be aware that the registration will be poorer with screen printing. If I were designing a board like this then I might consider using green solder mask as normal but putting in a fill of white silkscreen in the area required but this wouldn't have as good an effect as a white solder mask. GSPK in the UK do some highly reflective solder masks. http://www.gspkcircuits.co.uk/Products/Reflecta.aspx Regards, James James Head BEng CID MIIE MIET Senior PCB CAD Engineer Crowcon Detection Instruments Limited 2 Blacklands Way Abingdon Business Park ABINGDON OX14 1DY Telephone: 01235 557700 extension 289 Fax: 07092024504 E-mail: [log in to unmask] ******************************************************** The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the addressee, any disclosure, reproduction, copying, distribution, or other dissemination or use of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error please notify the sender immediately and then delete this e-mail. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free as information could be intercepted, corrupted lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard copy version. ******************************************************** ______________________________________________________________________ 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 16.0 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 For additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------