U.S. EPA had funded a study to examine alternatives to the electroless process. Although the focus of this exhaustive study was on environmental impact, there is useful information including user feedback on the different making holes conductive (MHC) processes. Much of the data is available on line : http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/dfe/pwb/pwb.html If you are not inclined to print out a 400 page booklet on your printer, they are also available free from their National Service Center (order online). The publications I found useful were: EPA 744-R-97-001 Implementing Cleaner Technologies in the PWB: MHC EPA 744-R-98-004a PWB Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment: MHC (BIG) EPA 744-R-98-002 Alternative Technologies for MHC There is a lot of verbiage. And, acceptance of conductive polymer process has been less than enthusiastic in the US. At the time this study was conducted only one facility had adopted it, and process examined was Atotech's Compact CP. The person who has studied Atotech's Uniplate in detail, please post the full text either at IPC's ftp site or zip it and make it available to us. ################################################################ 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 ################################################################ ################################################################ 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 ################################################################