It has been my understanding that this is a normal practice and should not be a problem. That is to say I have never had any quality issues with PCBs made this way. Gary At 10:51 AM 2/19/98 -0800, you wrote: >One of my pcb vendors (oversea) wants to fabricate boards >using electrolytically deposited gold (1um of Au over 5um of Ni) >over entire board surface. That includes hole walls, soldering >pads, conductive traces and ground planes. SMOBC is out the >window and silkscreen/LPISM are last steps in board fabration >process. > >This is first time that I was informed that a board vendor >fabricates boards by depositing gold/nickel over entire board >surface. My questions are: > >What negative effects will it have for smt and th board assembly >manufacturing? >Are smt/th process parameters req to be readjusted such as >reflow profile? >Will it increase diffusion of gold in solderpot? >Will it increase solder joint brittleness? >Are there long-term reliability issues? >Is there any other negative issue that need to be addressed? > >There's no qualm about price. It is better than SMOBC boards >with electroless Au/Ni immersion on soldering pads. > >regards >Matthew Park >NII Norsat International Inc. > >################################################################ >TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c >################################################################ >To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: >To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet < >To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet >################################################################ >Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. >For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 >################################################################ > > > ================================================== 0000,0000,ffffGary Griffin Engineering Manager Phone (408) 501-7156 Fax (408) 437-1976 Pager 1-800-759-7243 Pin: 145-1886 Alpha pager email griffin_p or [log in to unmask] SABER group Interface Products ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 ################################################################