Merix Corporation has used the IST technology the past 8 months. We use the technology to optimize the reliability of the products we offer. The IST results are used in process baselining, process introduction, and material introduction. Similar to Circo-Craft's comment, we certify process and materials PRIOR to introduction into the manufacturing process. The IST journey for Merix began with a comprehensive acceptance test plan. We verified the machine heated the coupons evenly and to the required temperature. We also produced 3 lots of material with varying level of separations (on purpose, not a random event). We gave 1/3 of the coupons to PWB Interconnect Solutions and tested the remainder at Merix. The equipment was repeatable from site to site and correctly screened the levels of quality. The IST identified failures were confirmed by thermograph imaging and microsection evaluation. Merix has completed 10 reliability studies with varying material combinations (FR4, Getek, teflon, composite lay-ups) and technologies (PTH, blind vias, and microvias). The machine results have identified problems that correlate to microsection results. A key component to finding the defects by microsection is using thermograph imaging to ID the defect location. The current status of the technology is a few companies own the equipment and some companies use the test service provided by PWB Interconnects Solutions. IPC is slowly moving to evaluate the repeatability of the technology and provide a standard test procedure for the industry. If you want discuss the technology in more detail, feel free to give me a call. Regards, Randy Reed Analytical Lab Merix Corporation 503.359.9300 x5-4421 randy.reed @merix.com