Some connector vendors have functionally equivalent platings that have gone through testing. The usually have exotic or trademarked names that escape me at the moment (they are not overly memorable names). Dan
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joe Randolph Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 4:01 PM To: Bill Owsley; David Cuthbert; [email protected] Subject: Re: Rhodium PCB On 12/15/2006, Bill Owsley wrote: Dredging thru the archives of my memory, I recall the 50 um of gold as a minimum requirement for the RJ - Registered Jack spec from the old Bell labs for reliability. It might now be enshined in an IPC spec, or still just a telecom detail. Hi Bill: That requirement (for a minimum of 50 micro-inches of gold) used to appear in FCC Part 68. It now appears in the corresponding industry standard TIA-968. TIA-968 specifies "hard gold," but also allows room for a "functional equivalent" in order to allow room for technical innovation. I believe there is a specified test procedure in TIA TSB 31B for demonstrating the adequacy of a proposed "functional equivalent." I'm not sure that anyone has actually succeeded in doing this. Joe Randolph Telecom Design Consultant Randolph Telecom, Inc. 781-721-2848 (USA) [email protected] http://www.randolph-telecom.com <http://www.randolph-telecom.com/> - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc

