There is a mix of opinions, including black pad, un-melted solder, Nickel-Tin interface, reflow profile; ENIG is evil, wetting problems and brittle fractures (and maybe more). I just finished checking the 20 boards we have on the shelf, finding 2 more with the problem. On the bad assemblies, all of the solder pulls off the PCB pad, leaving the pad with no Gold. Turning my destructive tendencies to assemblies; if I pull hard enough on the SMT electrolytic cap, the cap leads pull out of the solder blob with the expected blob surface tearing. Our board assembly house has asked for the bad boards so they can evaluate the problem. They will probably have the experience to make a proper determination of root cause. If they do come to a conclusion, I'll let the group know "the rest of the story". Thanks to all who took time to share opinions and suggestions, Carl ______________________________________________________________________ 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 -----------------------------------------------------