Solderability Standard: A Gold Plated Nickel Reference Material

A gold plated nickel solderability reference material has been developed. The as‐plated material has very good solderability, which can be degraded in a controlled manner by heat treatment to form a poorly solderable surface containing nickel oxide. Three heat treatments were used to give four different sample conditions. This allows testing of the wetting balance over a wide range with various IEC fluxes. The material has a shelf life of at least two years which confers two major advantages compared with existing reference material types. First, since no sample preparation is required the material is easy to use and secondly a large batch can be made, so ensuring that reproducibility between various machines and operators is maximised.