Highly integrated circuits

Community PCB Design
1

Hello:

I can see that SparkFun people make a lot of circuits with a high level of integration… that is, really tiny SMD resistors, capacitors and chips that are impossible to solder manually, and all that in small PCBs.

So, I would like to know how you people do that… is it special ovens for those tiny little things?

Is there any good (cheap?) company where I can send my schematic and get the PCB circuit highly integrated like yours?

I really appreciate your help and experience tips…

Regards,

Andy

BTW: I don’t know if my post title express what I mean… :stuck_out_tongue:

2

It’s easy to solder parts like that by hand, with the right equipment. I use a Metcal soldering station with a stereo microscope.

Learn how to design your own PCBs, it isn’t difficult.

3

So long as you can see the pins on the part, it can be soldered by hand. As leon mentioned, a quality iron is required equipment (I use a Weller station) as well as a good set of fine tweezers for part placement.

Besides hand soldering, you can use a hot plate or toaster oven to reflow the parts as well. There are all kinds of tutorials available around the net showing both hand and reflow soldering of fine pitch parts. If you send the boards out to an assembly house, you will end up paying quite a bit of money to have someone else do what is fully within your capabilities. The price may be worth it if you are doing production quantities of boards but for hobby work, it may be cost prohibitive.

-Bill

4

Learn how to design your own PCBs, it isn’t difficult.

I’ve done a couple of PCBs before but mainly with thru-hole components. The most complicated SMD part I’ve soldered was a chip in TSSOP28 package (FTDI’s FT232RL).

But, what about SMD resistors, capacitors and some really small connectors with traces very close to each other? It might be just practice but sometimes you can afford to screw your new shiny PCB.

Are there any good tutorials you know?

The price may be worth it if you are doing production quantities of boards but for hobby work, it may be cost prohibitive.

How much money are talking about to have an estimate?

Thank you for your help :slight_smile: Really appreciated.

Andy

5

We’ve paid £30 (GBP) each to get a couple of small prototype PCBs assembled with a BGA Telit module, but we had to pay £200 as well for a stencil. If the board hadn’t had the BGA, it would just have been the £30.