Soldermask error

On 4/16/2010 9:49 AM, John Bachman wrote:

I am using a component with the FN40-6X6 package in the standard

libraries.  My board house reports a soldermask error on this component

- the soldermask does not completely cover the pad, the tip of the end

sticks out from under the soldermask.

 

How can I correct this? Or do I even need to correct it?

 

I cannot see where the soldermask is defined.

Hi John,

The solder mask is defined on the tstop and bstop layers. When a board

is made the layers define the area of the pad that needs to be exposed,

if the soldermask doesn't cover the whole pad then your part might not

make electrical contact resulting in a faulty board. However sometimes

the soldermask is restricted on purpose.

My recommendation is to check the component manufacturer's recomendation

and adjust your mask to that.

The size and dimensions of the solder mask can be controlled through the

DRC setup window. Go to DRC-> Masks, here you can set how much extra

trim the solder mask has to give the pad.

Hope this helps

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Computer

"Jorge Garcia" <jorge@cadsoftusa.com> wrote in message

news:hqait0$rbr$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

On 4/16/2010 9:49 AM, John Bachman wrote:

I am using a component with the FN40-6X6 package in the standard

libraries.  My board house reports a soldermask error on this component

- the soldermask does not completely cover the pad, the tip of the end

sticks out from under the soldermask.

 

How can I correct this? Or do I even need to correct it?

 

I cannot see where the soldermask is defined.

 

Hi John,

 

The solder mask is defined on the tstop and bstop layers. When a board

is made the layers define the area of the pad that needs to be exposed,

if the soldermask doesn't cover the whole pad then your part might not

make electrical contact resulting in a faulty board. However sometimes

the soldermask is restricted on purpose.

 

My recommendation is to check the component manufacturer's recomendation

and adjust your mask to that.

 

The size and dimensions of the solder mask can be controlled through the

DRC setup window. Go to DRC-> Masks, here you can set how much extra

trim the solder mask has to give the pad.

 

Hope this helps

 

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Computer

John

Not addressed so far.

When a package is created in the library and the pads are placed, the

Solder Stop and Cream  setting can be set to On or Off (for automatically

providing these layer shapes ,for each pad)

When set on, the author of the package does not need to craft the Solder and

Cream shapes on their respective layers.This is done automatically by Eagle

and the DRC does control the final size.

When set off the author needs to create each of the SolderStop and Cream

shapes and place them over the pads. These ones do not change size with DRC

settings.

Yours will be made this way. So you have the choice of editing them all

individually so they cover the pads or delete what has been created on these

layers and then turn On the Stop and Cream for each pad On so the DRC

controls the sizes.

Warren