Gents, obviously I`m not an expert on this topic and I honestly need help. Talking with with a couple of PCB houses I got a bunch of answers - and still don`t know what is best with respect to reliability. Differences as `electrolytic plating needs conductive patterns` seem to be obvious, surface coplanarity/roughness diffe- rences are apparently slight. Is that true? Furthermore I have been told when using electroless plating processes the con-ductor patterns are etched prior to plating surface finishes (e.g. electroless nickel, electroless immersion gold), resulting in totally covered conductors (incl. side walls). When using electrolytic plating this will be done by panel plating which means you`ll finally end with conductors/lands with uncovered side walls. Any comments/assistance on those statements? Regards, Christian