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Poor solderability on printed boards may be seen more often with nickel gold and copper boards. They are a relatively new coating to assembly and some PCB manufacturers and care needs to be taken during their introduction and use.

In Figure 1, it is clear that the copper pad is not solderable as all the solder paste has reflowed to form a solder ball on the pad surface. Poor solderability on copper boards may be caused by ageing, poor handling, washing the board, excessive reflow temperature or it may have been poor when supplied.

Figure 1: The copper pad here is clearly not solderable.

Chip Leaching	Component Cracking	Cracked Joint	Crystallized Joints	Failure to Reflow
Joint Failure	Joint Voiding	Lifted Component	Open Joints	PCB Measelling
Plastic Coplanarity	Plastic Softening	Poor Pad Wetting	Poor Solderability & Wetting	Solder Beading
Solder Short	Solder Wicking