Electronics Difficult to solder parts

I've been looking at some new mcus & support components for a project, and many of them come in new fancy packages.

I've quite confident with soldering, and have soldered SOICs and 0603s on my kitchen table without difficulty - QFPs and SSOPs don't look terribly much harder.

However, I was really thinking of MFLPs and BGAs. It strikes me that any attempt to do these by hand is going to be a matter of 'apply solder, blowtorch and hope'. I've thought of buying some cheap chips (or getting some samples) and getting a couple of PCBs made to practice with - but if this is going to be a total waste of time, then I won't bother.

 

To solder BGAs you just need a heat gun as the balls on the bottom are solder

 

To be honest, soldering BGAs by hand, while (probably) possible, just isn't worth it. As Lynx says, you need a heat gun before you begin, and with a chip with many pins, you'll probably end up melting bits of board before the whole thing is stuck down. In industry, these things are attached using special machinary.

If you absolutely must go this route, you might find it easier to solder very find copper wire to the pins, having mounted the chip upside down - these can then be soldered into your circuit.

Not terribly elegant, but it does work, even on veroboard...

Ali

 

You have to heat the entire board and chip when soldering BGAs, just using a hot air gun will damage something.

Its possible, there are a couple of websites where people have made BGA soldering rigs but its not at all easy.

Ah! found the link I wanted:

http://wwwbode.cs.tum.edu/~acher/bga/index.html

Enjoy!

 

Maybe you could use the oven method? (http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm)

 

I saw some where they used a toaster oven to do SMT devices. its amazing how the solder goes where its supposed to when it melts. i'll post a link when i find it again.

 

Thanks guys.

I think I'll pass on anything that needs ovens. Anyway, I'm quite happy with SOICs for the moment.

I was playing with PCB designs for the smaller form factors, and realised that routing and board manufacture were going to be problematic. I don't think I can afford to use anyone except olimex for PCBs, and even SSOP boards are stretching their design rules.

Oh well.

 

There is a method of using solder paste and UV light I believe, though I'm not too clued up on this soldering method.

 

Ahhh I finaly found it!!
And here i was to post the link and looking back i see nleahcim already posted the one i was looking for.

 

One of my future projects will be to take a $10 Walmart toaster-oven, and (via relays, PID temperature sensing, etc etc) make my own SMD soldering oven. I have a few articles describing the 'ideal' heating method.