Optimizing SMT footprints (0603 and 0402) for hand soldering

[kaevee]

I am working on a project where I need to use 0603(1608 Metric) and 0402(1005 Metric) due to space constraints. My hands are not as steady as I want them to be. I have bought a stereo zoom microscope and a good soldering station. I have 0.020" solder wire and 0.010" is on the way.

If I increase the size of toe in footprints to give me more room, will it help?

Venkat

[zeqing]

for 0603 componnents, the pads need to be 0408 at least for soldering, if you made it 0603, you will 

[Rerouter]

For hand soldering, instead of changing the width of the pads, make them a little longer, that way they will still self center in one orientation, though you may need to nudge it to be centered in the other. you generally dont need much of an extension for 0603, but for 0402, yeah i can understand that for hand soldering.

[T3sl4co1l]

Surely it would require alcohol, not caffeine?!

(Trivia: alcohol is a performance-enhancing drug in professional shooting.  Reduces the shakes!)

(My personal experience with respect to soldering seems to be about balanced by the loss of concentration, so meh.)

Tim

[BigBoss]

I always find 0402 and 0603 SMD components are too small for ordinary and not space constrained projects.They are exaggerated small.
0805 even 1206 components are very well for hand soldering.If the frequency is not too high ( 1GHz and beyond ) there is no harm to use 0805 components.

[donotdespisethesnake]

If I increase the size of toe in footprints to give me more room, will it help?

In my experience, no. I use the regular footprints, with stereo microscope (x10), and the same soldering method as 0805 etc. On resistors and caps the tinning extends around the end, so it is sufficient to put the iron tip against the end.

[langwadt]

Surely it would require alcohol, not caffeine?!

(Trivia: alcohol is a performance-enhancing drug in professional shooting.  Reduces the shakes!)

(My personal experience with respect to soldering seems to be about balanced by the loss of concentration, so meh.)

Tim

https://xkcd.com/323/

[Warhawk]

 

[KL27x]

^I have a headache just looking at that. I admire your abilities.

If I increase the size of toe in footprints to give me more room, will it help?

The most important thing for hand-soldering is to leave yourself space between the components. The size of the pad doesn't matter too much if you use flux; touching the lead/end-cap will transfer enough heat to reflow the joint. I suppose the exception is where you have thermally relieved pads and are struggling to heat up the pad without direct contact.

Making the pads bigger does guarantee you don't accidentally pack these things too close together (for hand assembly), though. AND it can allow you to substitute the next larger package size on a prototype, if you happen to have a mix of resistor sizes.

[rx8pilot]

For the small stuff, I prefer a solder paste syringe and hot air. It is easy and does not need super precise coordination. Its also easier on heat sensitive parts like ceramic caps. Those things can crack internally when an iron heats it up in a few milliseconds.

For re-work, I have learned to solder just about anything with an iron, but still tend to favor hot air when I can.


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[Rerouter]

Flux and hotair still works wonders for reflow, but sometimes the board can be a right pain to heat up enough to melt all the pins.

[asmi]

if you're serious about assembling that kind of stuff, treat yourself with reflow oven (I use cheap-ass T-962 with some modifications and community firmware) and a good vacuum pump-powered pick up tool with tips for very small parts (I've bought one from Zephyrtronics with full set of fine tips for small SMD parts, yes it's pricey but now I can do even 0201! Good luck trying to solder them manually - I can hardly even see these things!). With these tools at my disposal (and a cheap stereo microscope from AmScope) assembling boards with a lot of small parts is a breeze.

P.S. I'm not affiliated with either of those companies - I just use their stuff and I like it.

[Alex Eisenhut]

This is my next project. Full of 0201 passive, 0.4mm BGA chips as well as 0.5mm BGA chips.
I'm looking to buy a PnP machine. I bet I will swear if I have to hand solder these.

Cool, I extend the QFN thermal pad to peek out so that you can heat it up with an iron and remove it easier.

[Bassman59]

if you're serious about assembling that kind of stuff, treat yourself with reflow oven (I use cheap-ass T-962 with some modifications and community firmware)

Wow, $200 from Amazon. Replacement firmware discussion here.

Will this thing burn my house down?

[asmi]

Wow, $200 from Amazon. Replacement firmware discussion here.

They have a range of ovens for different board dimensions. I mostly do small boards, so the smallest is good enough for me. Bigger ovens naturally are more expensive, but they share same controller.
Here is a YT video which demonstrates all upgrades if you're more of a visual type of person (it's not my video, I've used it as a reference when I was upgrading my oven):

Will this thing burn my house down?

It didn't burn mine That said, I wouldn't use it as a production oven, but for prototypes it's more than good enough (if oven have enough time to cool down between reflows - there should be no problems). One thing - during cool down stage of reflow it blows hot air outside, so make sure there is no easily combustible materials (like paper) nearby. My oven stands on a solid-wood table, and the table gets barely warm by the time reflow profile is completed. Even paper probably won't start burning as the air it cools down pretty quickly - but better safe than sorry.

[mojo3120]

Flux and hotair still works wonders for reflow, but sometimes the board can be a right pain to heat up enough to melt all the pins.

agreed....don't bother hand soldering SMD unless you've absolutely got no other choice. Just pick up a cheap air rework machine and don't look back.

[tautech]

I am working on a project where I need to use 0603(1608 Metric) and 0402(1005 Metric) due to space constraints. My hands are not as steady as I want them to be. I have bought a stereo zoom microscope and a good soldering station. I have 0.020" solder wire and 0.010" is on the way.

If I increase the size of toe in footprints to give me more room, will it help?

Venkat

Yep.
Altium Designer has three footprint sizes for each SMD passive size. For hand soldering I use the Low Density footprints.

[b_force]

Hot air or oven if you have troubles with shaking hands.

I personally find 0603 perfectly fine with a complete standard solder iron.