in addition, the tma also more sensitive to degree of cure - you got from delta Tg, and you can see directly from the curve what un-cured substance going to impact on CTE. however it is limited if you have flex or some spongy material. As for the probe breaking- if you know you have to change probe yourself, it most likely only going to break once... maximum 2x (so far the record still holds in the lab I worked before... not in Bev's lab, just for clarity). agree, sample prep is major pain. but you can't get CTE otherwise... CTE is too important to ignore from design/reliability point of stand. (calibration is another pain.triple stack with ice/In sandwich with ceramic plate.. like eating ice cream with split headache)... jk On Sep 19, 2016, at 7:40 PM, Yuan-chia Joyce Koo wrote: > TMA. direct measure of Tg, CTE those are critical for reliability > and material identification. that is assume for electronic > application (packaging). > second runner off: DSC, for Tg and exotherm of polymeric material > (looking for degradation or Tm, and you might be able to use good > balance to measure the left over material - sort of Tga with some > kind of temp info). > my 1.4 cents. > jk > On Sep 19, 2016, at 5:04 PM, Bev Christian wrote: > >> TechNetters, >> If you had the choice of getting ONE of: >> 1) TMA >> 2) DMA >> 3) DSC >> >> And $ was not an issue, which would you chose and WHY? Please, no >> "it >> depends" answers and no, you can't throw TGA into the mix. >> >> Regards, >> Bev >