I have seen recent postings expressing concern about the possible detrimental effect on solder joint life caused by the phosporous in traditional electroless (autocatalytic) nickel formulations. I am curious about whether anyone has looked into the new boron formulations (e.g., ASTM B607) as a possible alternative. Boron is a good metal deoxidizer and forms more stable oxides than phosphorous. Perhaps this will make it a more stable component of solder joints. The intermetallic compounds it forms (called borides) have some unusual electronic properties (see Cotton and Wilkinson, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, 5th ed. p165-166). At least two nickel intermetallics are listed: Ni3B and Ni4B3. I hope this helps. Pat Hogue Materials and Processes Engineering Honeywell Inc Satellite Systems Operation ################################################################ 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's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################