On Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:50:14 -0000, "N_Cook" wrote:

:I should have said there is a waveyness to the terminator between surviving
:MO track and the erroded section of the taper on the original full
:resolution pic for this
:http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:gra...O_resistor.jpg
:shown here
:http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:gra..._resistor2.jpg


It is difficult to know whether or not that this particular resistor suffered
from a manufacturing defect which produced a thinner than normal track at the
point of failure.

There is some literature related to metal film resistor failures due to single
shot high voltage pulses but it is not known if a manufacturing defect may have
contributed to such failures.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0022-3727/20/11/014

There has been a case where an ineffective cleaning process left small traces of
chlorine on the resistor body which caused etching after the the encapsulation
or coating process.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/j...TRY=1&SRETRY=0

While not on the same subject there is also a x-ray study of a metal film
resistor which exhibited a drop in resistance due to foreign matter shorting
adjacent tracks. It highlights the possibility of manufacturing defects though.
http://eeepitnl.tksc.jaxa.jp/jp/even...xt/209_oka.pdf