In the paper "PCB Loadboard Design Challenges for Multi-Gigabit Devices in Automated Test Applications" presented at Designcon 2006 there is a comparison of the measured loss of a 19 mil microstrip trace with different surface finished including thin and thick gold plating. The results are also presented in the just launched book "An Engineer's Guide to Automated Testing of High-Speed Interfaces" Another paper on this topic is: G. Brist, D. Cullen, D. Luttrull, and J. Martin, ?Reduction of High-Frequency Signal Loss through the Control of Conductor Geometry and Surface Metallization,? International Conference of the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA), 2002. I hope this is of some help. Jose -----Original Message----- From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Scott McMorrow Sent: Thu 8/26/2010 5:40 PM To: silist Subject: [SI-LIST] Electroless Ni-Au Plating impact on microstrip losses Sorry about that. This is the question I sent out. Is anyone aware of any published research on Ni-Au plating over Microstrip and the impact on losses other than: "Ni-Au Surface Finish Effects on RF Performance", D. Staiculescu, J. Laskar, J. Mendelsohn, E. Sweetman, D. Rudy and I. Artaki , IEEE MTT-S Digest, 1999, pp 1909-1912. -- Scott McMorrow Teraspeed Consulting Group LLC 121 North River Drive Narragansett, RI 02882 (401) 284-1827 Business (401) 284-1840 Fax http://www.teraspeed.com Teraspeed® is the registered service mark of Teraspeed Consulting Group LLC ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.net List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.net List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu