Electronics > Beginners

Hot air soldering, what am I doing wrong?

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iMo:
QFN:
1. put the solder on the chip's pins, not on the pcb pads
QFN, BGA:
2. you need a LOT of flux, the chip must swim in the flux, flux must stay there during soldering, so set the airflow such it does not blow the flux off
3. put your pcb on a ceramic support, heat the pcb up before soldering, lot of flux
4. then put the chip on the pcb and still heat, maintain a lot of flux, change the temperature (heating profile) such you change the air gun distance from the pcb, move the gun slowly down and up
5. gently (0.2-0.3mm) push the chip from a side - when the pins are soldered the chip moves back by wetting forces
6. the air flow and the temperature have to be adjusted - needs some training.

LQFP:
1. place the chip on the pads
2. bond the chip with solder on two-three places such it holds firm on the pads, shorts are not a problem
3. put a LOT of flux on the pads
4. solder all the pads with iron tip by moving the iron tip over pins, lot of flux and solder, shorts are no problem
5. use the copper wick and a lot of flux - place wick on the pins and heat it up with the iron from top (the wick must be wet of solder), pull the wick over the pins row from left to right (or right to left) slowly at one side
6. repeat at all other sides.

I did a few LQFP packages with air gun, but had to use the wick afterwards to remove several shorts. So it seems to me it is easier and faster to do it with iron instead.

The key is to maintain a LOT of flux all the time - it always works fine when there is a LOT of flux, chip must always swim in the flux.

TheHolyHorse:

--- Quote from: imo on November 16, 2019, 07:44:24 pm ---QFN:
1. put the solder on the chip's pins, not on the pcb pads
QFN, BGA:
2. you need a LOT of flux, the chip must swim in the flux, flux must stay there during soldering, so set the airflow such it does not blow the flux off
3. put your pcb on a ceramic support, heat the pcb up before soldering, lot of flux
4. then put the chip on the pcb and still heat, maintain a lot of flux, change the temperature (heating profile) such you change the air gun distance from the pcb, move the gun slowly down and up
5. gently (0.2-0.3mm) push the chip from a side - when the pins are soldered the chip moves back by wetting forces
6. the air flow and the temperature have to be adjusted - needs some training.

--- End quote ---

Thanks :-+

But in this case it was a LQFP package but still valuable information.

iMo:
I added the LQFP too. Btw the easiest soldering is with BGAs :)

TomS_:

--- Quote from: TheHolyHorse on November 16, 2019, 07:27:04 pm ---I heated the board so that the solder on the pads was molten when I placed the chip on the board so every thing should be hot and toasty.

--- End quote ---

Hmm. So you didnt have the chip on the board at the same time? Have you tried with the chip on the board while heating it up as well, so its leads also get cleaned by the flux, and also so the parts heat up at the same rate? Placing a cold part in to hot solder doesnt sound like a great idea.

I also wonder if maybe you need more solder on your pads? If there isnt enough, perhaps it doesnt have anything to "float" on in order for surface tension to align it.

wraper:
Liquid flux as in flux pen usually is hopeless for hot air. You need tacky (gel) flux. But don't buy Chipquick SMD291, it's junk.

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