Christian, SSD, solid solder deposits, refers to the pre-placement of solder, usually at the bare board fabrication stage. A variety of methods have been used to place the solder, including electrodeposition (plating), and molten deposition, then flattening them. I was one of 4-5 speakers who talked about it at last year's Nepcon West/Anaheim; suggest you see the Proceedings. Since I was invited too late to submit a written paper, permit me to tell you about "Deep" Solid Solder Deposits. DSSD has solder that goes INTO the board. Happens as follows: Using IMPRINT Patterning (sort of a precision "hot stamping" into special PWB uncured "laminte"), U- shaped recessed pads (and grooved, X-Y traces) are formed, plated, etched. The unexpected result of this work is that, for ordinary fine-pitch designs, the "cups" fill up with solder and the top of the solder is quite flat. In assembly, as with other SSDs, a sticky flux is used to hold the component's leads in place. In the case of DSSDs, the leads move down and into the molten solder during reflow. For a much more thorough explanation, please see the issue of PC Fab magazine that just came out (I authored a 2-p. article on IMPRINT Patterning here). Hope this is not too commercial and informatiive. Sincerely, George Gregoire (President, Dimensional Circuits Corp., San Diego, CA; DCC is the inventor of the Imprint process, which is expected to be licensed)