Mark, There are many ways to accomplish this. My development flow would be: 1. How much of what type of blind/buried vias are done now? 2. Is the technology homegrown or is the technology purchased? (same questions for the technology vendor including what type of resources are available to train the purchaser of the technology) 3. What is the general technology level of the shop? 4. What is the process flow for the b/b process? 5. Get stability/capability data for the processes. Make sure there is enough data and the data has maximum variability. 6. What was the qualification plan to introduce the technology? The general yield or reliability problems will depend on the technology used, but if a process is stable and capable just ask for the qualification plan and see if it meets your requirements. In general, those shops that are capable of providing a reliable product will have much if the data above. And the key word is DATA. Steve Hello Technet, Our company is busy designing some printed circuit boards with "overplated blind via's" (I mean blind via's, made in a sequential plating process, where the via is filled with epoxy, after which it is covered with copper and a solderable plating). All our vendors claim they can build such boards, but as far as I known they do not use this technology very often, and I don't want to be their "guinea pig". The question : What kind of questions should I ask our bare board vendors in order to check wether they are capable of building these boards with good relaibility in a reproducible way ? What are the potential problems that the board vendors should be aware of, and should have solved ? Any ideas ? Mark Roach ################################################################ 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 <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################ ################################################################ 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 <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################