If you are trying to "qualify" a process, the question becomes "Qualify to what standard"? Presently, there are no bare board cleanliness specifications (on a national basis). The closest would be the Bellcore document. I would recommend imposing the SIR and Electromigration tests of Bellcore TR-78, Chapter 13, as well as using ion chromatography per IPC-TM-650, method 2.3.28. The ion chromatography, if done properly, can tell you if you will have electrical leakage or corrosion problems with the fabbed boards. The SIR tests and Electromigration tests will get the bad actors. In our testing, passing the Bellcore SIR and electromigration tests will not always catch problems. I would not rely on ionic cleanliness tester information alone, and I would be leery of any fab house that uses ionic cleanliness testers (e.g. Omegameter, Zero Ion) alone to show cleanliness. I have lost track of the number of problems we have looked at in which the ICT data showed under 5.0 ug/in2, but had leakage and corrosion problems. If you would like to discuss it further, please call myself (Doug Pauls) or Terry Munson at (317) 457-8095. We provide the services listed above. Doug Pauls Contamination Studies Laboratories Kokomo, IN *************************************************************************** * TechNet 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. * ***************************************************************************