I am currently debating the pro's & con's of suppressing non-functional inner layer pads and have found our PCB fabricators have differing views on which is best. Here are the 2 views. 1. Suppressing inner layer pads will give a better drilled hole, and so will produce a more consistant & cleaner plated hole. 2. NOT suppressing inner layer pads will produce a stronger & more reliable PTH less prone to failiure. We first changed to using inner layer pads after a new design, which required 2 reflow soldering processes & 1 wave solder process, failed ICT afer assembly. The cause was a process problem at our supplier which resulted in via's cracking in the barrel. Having this problem made us consider what we could do with the design to reduce the risk of similar problems happening again. I would appreciate any views you may have on this topic. ________________________________________________________________________ | [log in to unmask] David Tandy. EDA Specialist. | | Tel: (+44) 161 486 1511 GenRad ADS, Monmouth House, Monmouth Road, | | Fax: (+44) 161 486 1989 Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK8 7AY, England. | |________________________________________________________________________| **************************************************************************** * The mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * **************************************************************************** * To unsubscribe from this list at any time, send a message to: * * [log in to unmask] with <subject: unsubscribe> and no text. * ****************************************************************************