At one point or another, you will probably find yourself needing to solder a SMD (Surface Mount Device) package. Many people here might think SMD soldering is almost impossible. SMD soldering is usually a lot easier than it looks!
First you need right tools. The tweezers are very important in the entire SMD soldering process. Small diameter solder is a must (sometimes soldering paste is used instead traditional solder wire). You also need a suitable soldering iron. Depending what you do you need a very small or quite large soldering iron tip. You can start learning the skill with a normal temperature controlled soldering iron with a small tip.
The flux is very very important. Flux pen makes applying the flux very easy. Easiest is to use a flux type that you don’t necessarily need to wash off after soldering.
The solder-wick will help you clean solder off old pads, remove excess solder from solder joints, and remove solder bridges.
SMD Soldering Guide by Infidigm introduces SMD (Surface Mount Device) hand soldering. The guide is organized into different methods. A simplified list is included with each method to identify which types of SMD components are for the appropriate method.
Intro into SMD Soldering is a good tutorial on SMD soldering with example videos.
LOW COST SMD SOLDERING GUIDE article will take you through the process of soldering these surface mount parts, from simple two-pin parts to more complex TQFP.
11 Comments
Brian says:
You’re right when you say that first you need the right tools. With so many variations of solder and different instruments to use in their application, it can be confusing for a new enthusiast. The white pages on http://www.indium.com were really helpful to me, and their resident scientist’s blog is a fun read: http://blogs.indium.com/blog/an-interview-with-the-professor
tomi says:
Thanks for pointing to this scientist’s blog at http://blogs.indium.com/blog/an-interview-with-the-professor
It was very interesting to read.
Lorinda Shetz says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
If You Give a Nerd a Microscope…
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1327509&
Given the right tools — including a digital microscope — it’s possible for anyone who is reasonable adept to hand-solder electronic systems based on surface-mount technology (SMT).
According to this ifixit column: “Jessa taught herself how to microsolder, fell in love with repairing electronics, and started a repair business called iPad Rehab in Mendon, New York. Now she does board-level repairs for a living and teaches microsoldering to other repair techs.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVBlog #408 – Schmart Board 0.4mm QFN SMD Soldering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hBcVt_4d5I
Tomi Engdahl says:
BGA Hand Soldering Video
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/03/bga-hand-soldering-video/
By 2016, most people have got the hang of doing SMD soldering in the garage–at least for standard packaging. Ball Grid Array or BGA, however, remains one of the more difficult packages to work with [Colin O’Flynn] has an excellent video (almost 30-minutes, including some parts that are sped up) that shows exactly how he does a board with BGA.
[Colin] uses some spare boards to lock the target board down to his bench and then uses a custom stencil and solder paste to prep the board. Once he has the solder paste on, he places the components using a homebrew air tweezer and some regular tweezers.
For reflow, [Colin] uses the common T-962A with the open source firmware. Two other modifications to the oven: a custom vent hood with a carbon filter and a Jolly Wrencher sticker for decoration (we heartily approve).
Complete PCB Hand Assembly (FPGA in BGA Package + reflow)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DMYJmB4naA
Tomi Engdahl says:
SMD Soldering – Small Packages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q6YNmBKjiU
SMD Soldering – Hand Soldering – Small Packages : 0805, 0603, 0402, 0201, 01005
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reflow Rig Makes SMD Soldering a Wok in The Park
https://hackaday.com/2018/04/25/reflow-rig-makes-smd-soldering-a-wok-in-the-park/
For a DIY reflow setup, most people seem to rely on the trusty thrift store toaster oven as a platform to hack. But there’s something to be said for heating the PCB directly rather than heating the surrounding air, and for that one can cruise the yard sales looking for a hot plate to convert. But an electric wok as a reflow hotplate? Sure, why not?
Reflow Soldering Hotplate
http://www.instructables.com/id/Reflow-Soldering-Hotplate/
Tomi Engdahl says:
No Caffeine, No Problem: A Hand-Soldered Chip-Scale Package
https://hackaday.com/2018/06/26/no-caffeine-no-problem-a-hand-soldered-chip-scale-package/
It’s said that the electronic devices we use on a daily basis, particularly cell phones, could be so much smaller than they are if only the humans they’re designed for weren’t so darn big and clumsy. That’s only part of the story — battery technology has a lot to do with overall device size — but it’s true that chips can be made a whole lot smaller than they are currently, and are starting to bump into the limit of being able to handle them without mechanical assistance.
Or perhaps not, if [mitxela]’s hand-soldering of a tiny ball-grid array chip is any guide. While soldering wires directly to a chip is certainly a practical skill and an impressive one at that, this at least dips its toe into the “just showing off” category.
The chip is an ATtiny20 in a WLCSP (wafer-level chip-scale package) that’s a mere 1.5 mm by 1.4 mm. The underside of the chip has twelve tiny solder balls in a staggered 4×6 array with 0.4 mm pitch. [mitxela] tackled the job of soldering this chip to a 2.54-mm pitch breakout board using individual strands from #30 AWG stranded wire and a regular soldering iron, with a little Kapton tape to hold the chip down.
Hand soldering a WLCSP package
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=225&v=edERx4x5eY0
Betty Hunt says:
For hand soldering, this is also a worthy website to follow:
https://www.solder.net/hand-soldering-services/
Tomi Engdahl says:
SMD Soldering Tutorial | Guide | Tools | Tecniques | Stencil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYInlAmPnGo
In this video I show you a few tecniques for soldering SMD components. We start easy with two pins components of size 1206, 0805, 0603 and 0402. Then some SOT23 and some SOP8 and SOP16. We also solder microcontroller, QFN chip with soldering stencil and solder paste and the hot air gun.