Hi Gordon, Your concerns about these reliability statements in these standards are well taken. See also the E-mail from Dave Hillman (Subject: Re[2]: IPC-SM-840). Those documents really do not have any business talking about reliability; they do not address reliability, only quality and that only in terms which may affect reliability not significantly in many cases. Of course, quality is a requirement for assuring reliability, but assemblies perfect under J-001 or IPC-SM-840 can be very unreliable because the basic design did not consider the severity of the use conditions. The only documents that address reliability are IPC-D-279, 'Design Guidelines for Reliable Surface Mount Technology Printed Board Assemblies', ANSI/IPC J-STD-012, 'Implementation of Flip Chip and Chip Scale Technology', and ANSI/IPC J-STD-013, 'Implementation of Ball Grid Array and Other High Density Technology' for their specific technologies, and IPC-SM-785, 'Guidelines for Accelerated Reliability Testing of Surface Mount Solder Attachments' for the testing aspects. Because of the varying nature of the use conditions, there can not be a reliability standard, only guidelines that allow the designer to meet stated reliability goals. Werner Engelmaier Engelmaier Associates, Inc. Electronic Packaging, Interconnection and Reliability Consulting 23 Gunther Street Mendham, NJ 07945 USA Phone & Fax: 201-543-2747 E-mail: [log in to unmask] *************************************************************************** * 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. * *************************************************************************** * If you are having a problem with the IPC TechNet forum please contact * * Dmitriy Sklyar at 847-509-9700 ext. 311 or email at [log in to unmask] * ***************************************************************************