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What is better: ENIG or DIG PCB plating?

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JohnG300c

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enig black pad

I'm in the process of choosing a surface finish for my latest PCB. The smallest pitch is 0.5 mm (FPGA in 208 PQFP). I have narrowed down my choices to two:

1) ENIG (Electroless Ni, immersion Gold): Apparently a tricky manufacturing process or else i'll end up with the black pad issue.

2) DIG (Direct Immersion Gold): Simpler manufacturing but may start to corrode after 4-6 months (not really an issue in my case since the boards will go to production pretty much right away).

I'm leaning towards DIG. Questions:

a) Does anyone have real-world experience with DIG?
b) Is this finish common in China (where i will manufacture the PCB)?
c) Is the ENIG finish really suffering from black pads these days?
d) In general, what is the price difference between ENIG and DIG?

I have also seen references to immersion silver and tin but corrusion problems (silver) and growing whiskers (shorts for tin) makes these less interesting. These are not high-volume boards (100+ per year perhaps) so the pricing difference perhaps really doesn't matter (unless it is large).
 

ENIG or DIG PCB plating?

FYI: I have decided to use DIG surface finish. Cheaper and the storage period of 4-6 months is fine. DIG is widely used by the Chinese manufacturer.
 

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