Hi Jan, You sure must have been looking under wrong headings in the TechNet archives, because none of your listed suggestions pertain to or help with Au-plated pads, and I know there is useful info in the archives. Yes, 'gold embrittlement' or more correctly 'gold weakening' is a real—as in solder joints can fail—defect. The dull appearance of your solder joints means that AuSn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) have reached the surface. It also means that your Au-plating was rather thick. Gold embrittlement will be a factor with 4% or more of Au by weight in the solder. Your surface appearance is an indication that you are likely to have more than that in your solder joints. Unless you have an application, where bending of the PCA or vibration or more than benign temperature cycling are not issues, you can expect solder joint failures sooner than without the gold. These could be catastrophic infant mortalities. The only solution for pads plated with too much Au is to wash the Au off; I take it you have gold plating because of some contact fingers, so you need careful shielding of these fingers. Werner Engelmaier Engelmaier Associates, L.C. Electronic Packaging, Interconnection and Reliability Consulting 7 Jasmine Run Ormond Beach, FL 32174 USA Phone: 904-437-8747, Fax: 904-437-8737 E-mail: [log in to unmask] ################################################################ 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 ################################################################