Hi Steve Sometimes the names we give things make a little sense huh? Not to anyone who doesn't know the shape of a 'Homeplate' (like us dumb old Europeans) :-) Ian Hey Ryan! What "homeplate" apertures is, is a opening for passive components that look just like a baseball homeplate with the pointy end facing in towards the centroid of the location. This shape has become popular with the increased use of no-clean solderpastes. What this shape does is to reduce the paste deposited along the inside areas of the pads towards the center of the location where it winds up beneath the body of the capacitor or resistor placed there. Being that the body is unsolderable, what usually happens is that the paste that is trapped there will coalecse together at liquidous and form a little ball that squeezes out to the side of the part and remain there because of the flux residue that it's coated with. It's not been an issue in a water soluble environment because in 99.9% of the cases it gets washed away when the board is cleaned, but in a no clean environment it stays there...and they're usually big enough to cause a short between fine pitch leads if it were to ever work loose from the flux residue. The homeplate shape has been found one of the best shapes to use that will reduce the solder paste deposited where it creates the squeeze balls, and still gives a good area for the parts to be placed and still have enough tack from the paste to keep them in place until reflow. Sometimes the names we give things make a little sense huh? -Steve Gregory- ################################################################ 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 ################################################################ Regards Ian Squires Senior Production Engineer ------------------------------------------------------- Graseby Dynamics Ltd Park Avenue, Bushey, Watford, Herts, WD2 2BW Web Site: www.gradyn.co.uk Phone: 01923-228566 xt 295 Fax: 01923-221361 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Registered in England no. 480992 Registered office: 765 Finchley Road, London, NW11 8DS ------------------------------------------------------- ################################################################ 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 ################################################################