I am sending this on behalf of a board manufacturer who has problems with a customer's strict cleanliness requirements. They manufacture double sided surface mount boards in a 12 up panel format.The solder used is SCM water soluble with 2% silver content. The boards are washed twice through a frequently drained autowash with DI water. The customer requires an ionic contamination of < 0.5ug/cm2. During autowash, boards are measured in an ionagraph while 2/500 are also measured at final audit - any final audit fails requires the whole batch to be rewashed and retested. Typical ionagraph results vary between 0 and 0.5ug/cm2. The boards are then functionally tested, packed and shipped. The customer measures 5 boards at incoming inspection - if 1 fails the 0.5ug/cm2 spec, the entire batch is returned. Does anyone have any experience of the amount of contamination that boards can pick up during shipping/packaging even with stringent handling measures? Is it practical for the customer to insist on this limit particularly as the board is without any conformal coating? One proposed solution has been the globtopping of the most critical area of the board though this involves extra time and capital cost. Has anyone any alternatives? John Barton _____________________________________________________________ John Barton AKA JohnnyB NMRC, Lee Maltings, Phone : +353-21-904082 Prospect Row, Fax : +353-21-270271 Cork, Ireland. e-mail: [log in to unmask] "Whenever I'm faced with a difficult problem, I always think to myself 'How would MacGyver deal with this?'" ---------------------------------------------------------------- ~ ~ *************************************************************************** * TechNet mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * *************************************************************************** * To subscribe/unsubscribe send a message <to: [log in to unmask]> * * with <subject: subscribe/unsubscribe> and no text in the body. * *************************************************************************** * 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] * ***************************************************************************