Hand soldering a BGA using the SchmartBoard|ez
Ball Grid Array chips have multiple rows of contacts under the chip. These are difficult to solder by hand, as we found out when Sjaak tried to solder a TMP006.
Zeta tipped us to this video of hand soldering a 400 pin BGA chip to a SchmartBoard breakout. The breakout board has a via under each contact on the BGA chip. The chip is soldered to the board by heating each via from the bottom of the PCB with a normal iron. These boards are quite expensive at around $45.
Via the comments.
This entry was posted in Chips, how-to and tagged BGA, soldering.
Comments
Very clever idea. However the soldering at the end of the video looked a little rough. Would some solder paste applied through the bottom of the board and then reflowed with a heat gun do a better job?
Ah, having watched the video again, I think the idea is to apply heat to the bottom of the board. The blob of solder on the iron is there only for thermal conduction and not to apply extra solder… the solder already being provided by the balls of the BGA package. Is that a correct interpretation of what’s going on?
I would guess if you are using a BGA the traces are for some high speed stuff and this such a layout might not be of great use… Nor always but often.
I’ve used their 0.5mm pqfp boards to make pulling ROMs during a recent (legal) reverse engineering bout easy – they’re really well engineered with grooves for the pins to sit in and solder cleanly and easily
(usual disclaimer, I don’t work for the guys, have never met them, just a happy customer)