Re: gEDA-user: A couple o' questions

[sdb@xxxxxxxxxx (Stuart Brorson)]

> PCB does min annular ring checks as of several weeks ago.

Great!  THis is an important check!  Thank you!

[ . . . .]

> By soldermask bridge width do you mean minimum width in between 
> soldermask relief areas?

Yes.  In particular, I am interested to check that the soldermask
separating two pins (or a pin and a via, or two vias) is sufficiently
wide.  Otherwise the possibility of an inadvertent solder bridge
exists.  

> Can you elaborate on "metal slivers"?

I mean thin little slivers of copper formed when a circular antipad
and some other structure get close to one another, creating a little
wedge of copper which sticks into nowhere.  These apparently can cause
strange etch effects, and are bad for DFM.

In the same catagory are slivers of space between metal, where the
etchant can apparently concentrate, and eat away more copper than is
desirable.  

Please don't ask me to speak more knowledgably about these strange
etch effects -- I am not a PCB fabrication expert.  I only repeat here
what I have been told.

Stuart