Is there anyway to solder to a SOT-23-8 package?

[yada]

I ordered a whole bunch of radio chips from mouser but I chose a SOT-23-8 package thinking it was bigger. These chips are not tiny they're microscopic! Are these of any use to a hobbyist? If you etch your own boards is that just too small; the traces cant be reliably etched that small?

Luckily I only spent about 20 bucks at .80-1.20CAN peso per chip, but its disappointing if these are just really small pieces of trash.

[rob77]

are you sure you're talking about sot23-8 ? that's giant compared to other stuff sot23-8 is roughly 3x3mm footprint so it's not that big and soldering it is roughly the same as soldering a SOIC-8 (another giant SMT package). you just need to start working with those small things and it'll be ok after some time you would not even think about using those ugly giant DIP packages
 
btw... i'm a hobbyist , i do my boards in my lab and i'm using components down to 0402, and ics in MSOP, VSOP, 0.5mm pitch quads.  you just need to get used to those small packages. a year ago 1206 and 0805 size for passives was my preferred choice. and i was bitching at msop and anything smaller than 0805... now 0603 and 0402 is the default size for passives on my  boards and i use the larger components only when needed (power dissipation, putting a trace or even two between pads of a passive.. etc..)

[james_s]

I hand solder them without issues, both on boards I etch myself and commercially made boards. With some care you can dead bug them on copper clad or even glue them on perfboard and solder wire wrap wire to the pins for prototyping. It's not that hard, just takes a steady hand and good eyes or a magnifier.

[ataradov]

I would agree with others. If you are serious about electronics, you need to get used to dealing with parts like that, and have corresponding setup. Microscope is a must here. SOT-23 is huge compared to other stuff you get nowadays.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Are you sure you don't mean sot-323?  You can do SOT23-8 on veroboard at a pinch!

[james_s]

Microscope would be nice, but it's a luxury I have not had access to. For now my eyesight is good enough to work with fine pitch SMT stuff as long as I have enough light. Sometimes I use a small illuminated loupe for the really small stuff.

Adapter boards are available for prototyping many SMT package types, that can make life easier.

[cdev]

The frequency your circuit runs at should enter in to your decision of what construction technique to use. A really skillful home brewer might be able to get up to a bit less than one GHz using Manhattan style with mini coax for interconnections of any distance and a few hundred MHz using dead bug. Using a PCB design with lots of vias around ground points makes more sense for RF usually.

[james_s]

Designing PCBs for RF is not trivial either. I didn't see any mention of RF here, but yes special considerations will apply in that case.

[sleemanj]

If you etch your own boards is that just too small; the traces cant be reliably etched that small?

Should be easy enough, I think it is about 12mil pin diameter, and about the same space between pads, pretty much my "standard easy to achieve" for trace/space.

[yada]

No this is REALLY small. Heres a view through the lens wouldn't focus that small. Huge red thing on left is a 30ga wire wrap wire that I did my last project with, you are right its not sot 23 this is smaller. How do you connect 6 or eight wires to that? 64 ga wire?

[BravoV]

Huge red thing on left is a 30ga wire wrap wire that I did my last project with, you are right its not sot 23 this is smaller.

Show us photo of your "genuine" sot23 that is soldered to your 30ga wire.

[ataradov]

Do you have a link to the exact part you've got?

[yada]

Here is it zoomed in through my micro scope:

[yada]

Huge red thing on left is a 30ga wire wrap wire that I did my last project with, you are right its not sot 23 this is smaller.

Show us photo of your "genuine" sot23 that is soldered to your 30ga wire.

That last project was through hole. That's why this seems undoable, I thought through hole was small!

Maybe I should stick to vacuum tubes and solder guns with flux in a can.

[ataradov]

If this is 0.5 mm wide package, then this is most definitely not SOT23. It is not even SC70, which would be 2mm wide.

[yada]

If this is 0.5 mm wide package, then this is most definitely not SOT23. It is not even SC70, which would be 2mm wide.

This part was found mixed stuck to the back of a yellow esd sticker not part of my order. But now I want to know what it is?

[ataradov]

This part was found mixed stuck to the back of a yellow esd sticker not part of my order. But now I want to know what it is?

AEJW looks like MAX7044, but it is only available in a real SOT23-8, which is 3 mm wide. So this looks like something else.

[m98]

Now that's a really strange package, never seen that before. Is it really only 0.5mm wide? Thats almost as small as an 0201 resistor...
So I'd say unless you have the motoric of a swiss watch mechanic and an IR soldering station, there's no way you could ever solder this thing without a damn precise pick and place machine.

[yada]

If this is 0.5 mm wide package, then this is most definitely not SOT23. It is not even SC70, which would be 2mm wide.

This part was found mixed stuck to the back of a yellow esd sticker not part of my order. But now I want to know what it is?

[yada]

Solder with this right? Lots of flux, shaped tip to get between the pins.

Maybe doable..

[ataradov]

there's no way you could ever solder this thing without a damn precise pick and place machine.

I would take that challenge. I think it still solderable by hand. Would be cool to know what package is that.

[sleemanj]

If that package really is 0.5mm long, that would make the space between pins on the order of 0.04mm, or 2 mils, and the pin diameter about the same.

[rdl]

I didn't know there was anything that small with pins at all.

[yada]

So I started this thread with little hope, then optimism! IT CAN BE DONE!, now its not looking so doable.  What ga wire do you use? Solder paste and hot air? Magic??
Use law of large numbers pour in enough chip with enough paste with enough solder, and shake for enough time and one will come out soldered perfectly, or maybe all of them. Do they tech you those super task equations in "Freedom School"

[ataradov]

What ga wire do you use? Solder paste and hot air? Magic??

I was not talking about wires. It can be soldered to a board.

Wires with this size are not soldered, it is ultrasonic welding territory.