Fred, Michael, I was interested in your communique, because I too am designing motor/valve drivers that are switching large powers where inductive impedences are a concern. What type of reflow do you all use? Are we the only folks left who use vapor reflow? I've heard that it is not common. I too am mildly skeptical about the rules for traces egressing an SMD land and if this would be a sig- nificant cause for uneven solder cooling of opposing lands. Since, during vapor phase, there is a pre-heat 'ramp-up', the entire PCA should have a fairly uniform temperature, no? And there is a cool-down phase as well. (I will query our assy people). One note about the SMD components on my hi-current nets; not all of the components are necessarilly seeing hi-current. As a rule of thumb, I've noticed that the smaller packages (having smaller lands) on a hi-current signal net generally are'nt seeing the hi-current anyway; such as the control side of my switch where there are voltage dividers and maybe a suppressor diode that will only see transient spikes when the motor fields collapse or res- istors to testpoints on my buss voltage. So I just keep those traces smaller anyway. Maybe this is obvious, but I thought I would just throw this out there. Stay active with this forum with these types of designs so I can pick your brains. Thanks. James Patten TRW Space and Electronics Group (310) 813-8914