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Soldering tiny SMD components the easy and fast way (with a hotplate) by ArvidJense
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ArvidJense
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I've being doing electronics for a little while and while SMD components seemed to provide a lot of advantages, I was intimidated by their small size; "how the hell do I solder that?" But as I wanted to use a specific tiny accelerometer for my project, which only came in the minuscule 2x2mm (about 150 of these fit into an M&M!) I was forced to learn it. And to my surprise, it was even more easy an foolproof than normal soldering! This Instructable shows you step by step the process of soldering a small SMD PCB. Total time of doing it is under 5 minutes, even less when you get some practice. For this Instructable I skip the part of designing the PCB and sourcing the parts, just to focus on the soldering part. If you have any questions on design, manufacture or sourcing, don't fret to ask! And if this Instructable helped you, don't forget to vote ;)

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Bio: I'm a Dutch guy doing things with music and technology. At the moment I'm finishing my BSc in Industrial Design Engineering as well as my BAMus with Honours in MediaMusic. Not limiting myself to any g...read more More by ArvidJense

Tags: SMD
hotplate

soldering

electronics

surface mount

Step 1: Gather parts

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Before you start, make sure you've got all stuff you need: A hotplate that can be set to a temperature of 150-300C (I was very lucky to have access to a Weller station, but anything with an adjustable temperature range will work) Solder paste (Flux is not necessary as its already in the paste, but it can make fixing mistakes a lot easier) Precision tweezers An object to apply the solder paste with, this can be anything thin and rigid, I chose to use a jumper wire All of your components The PCB to put everything on

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Step 2: Dispense some solder paste

Now find a (discardable) piece of plastic and put a little blob of solder paste on it. A blob the size of a 3mm LED was enough for my board.

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Step 3: Apply paste

Use your 'applicator' of choice (the jumper wire in my case) to grab a tiny bit of solder any apply it to one of the solder pads on your PCB. To make things a bit easier, I chose to start from the centre of the board outwards and with the biggest parts before the smallest. The amount of solder paste needed is very little, but make sure there definitely is a little blob standing up on the pad.

Step 4: Add the first component

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Now grab your tweezers, grab the component for you pad you just applied solder paste to and drop it into place. Gently push it into the paste to be sure it won't move. Be careful that you oriented the component right!

Step 5: Repeat

Now simply repeat the previous steps for all the other components. Whether your apply all the solder paste first and then place all the components at the same time
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or apply and place for each component individually is up to you. To keep things interesting, I like to take a group of components of a similar size and place those at the same time. I work from the largest to the smallest components, which allows me to gradually increase precision and concentration; when I arrive at the really small components, I've already practiced on the large ones!

Step 6: For the really tiny parts

One of the components on my board is a 2x2mm accelerometer with 10 pins. The pins were so small that I was not able to individually dip the pads. After some trial and error of having to little or too much solder I figured out an (almost) fail-proof method. You take a tiny bit of solderpaste and apply it in between and on the sides of the pad. The capillary action when soldering will make sure that all the solder is pulled onto the pads and you're sure that you didn't add too much solder. To help this action, I like to apply a little extra droplet of flux. This really makes the component float and pull towards the right pads. When the solder and flux is in place, simply put the tiny part in place and you're ready to do the actual soldering!

Step 7: Soldering

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Everybody who has ever tediously soldered a complex strip-board design will love this step. Set your hot plate to the right temperature, I chose 270C, but depending on you components and solder paste you might want to use a different temperature. Carefully put your board on the hotplate with tweezers, making sure the components don't move. Now the magic happens! After a little while you can see the solder paste becoming fluid and really grabbing the parts into place. Check if all the components are in the right place while the solder is still fluid, and if they're not (like with the tiny parts being just one pin offset) push them into place with your tweezers. Once you're sure everything is in place, carefully take your board with tweezers and put it on a heat resistant surface.

Step 8: Test and cheer!

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After the board has been cooled, test it! If everything went right and the board programs and/or the LEDs light up, you'll be very happy! If it does not work immediately, take a good look at all the solder pad and use a multimeter to figure out if any connections shorted or didn't connect at all. If this happened you can simply put the board on the hotplate again and add/remove some solder on the place an error occurred. Something you need to look out for is that the PCBs will slightly warp from the heat, this means that the second time you put a PCB on the hotplate, the edges might not touch the plate and it will take longer for the solder to heat up in those areas. I was very happily please with how easy and error-free this process went and I hope this Instructable will help you as well!

Edit: As some of you have noted, the Weller soldering station and hotplate I used in the photo's, is not really in the price range of most hobbyists. But there is no need for such fancy equipment. Sparkfun swears by their skillet, Hobbytronics makes use of an electric stove and at Reprap they use a cheap cooking hotplate. Also, I don't have a clue on what makes a good solder paste/flux and which one you should buy. Some of them have a syringe attached for easy application. Maybe an expert could chip in on this part?

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Make Comment

azharz says:
9

yesterday

Reply

Awesome work. And as you wished, I have voted you in all three contests ;)

purplepig60 says:

19 hours ago

Reply

NOW I have to try this. In the 70's as a teen, projected like crazy. then came family. now am retired and finally getting into the box of old parts again, got my first raspberry pi from my nephew for christmas. I'm all excited to start soldering smaller stuff. knew about heatguns, this is so much better. THANK YOU. I love the new tech, so many more possibilities. like being a kid all over again.

OZ1SEJ says:

4 hours ago

Reply

Wow - interesting! I was under the impression that 270C would instantly kill just about any component - especially ICs - and certainly melt the plastic housing on LEDs. But you're saying this doesn't happen? I have to try this...

ArvidJense (author) in reply to OZ1SEJ

7

4 hours ago

Reply

Just take a look at the data sheet of your components. My boards might not have actually reached 270C, as I took them off the hotplate as soon as the solder melted. Go as low as possible to be safe, I might have been a bit impatient ;)

g4ipz says:

6 hours ago

Reply

A very nice instructable but sadly I suspect the equipment used is well out of the price range of most hobbyist builders I would think. Even the cheapest Weller hotplate runs out at around 450 here in the UK and the Weller WMD 3 (or equivalent as thats no longer made it seems) is upwards from 600 plus accessories.

ArvidJense (author) in reply to g4ipz

7

5 hours ago

Reply

You are right on that part, but as I've stated in other comments, the same principle can be used with a normal (cooking) hotplate and a small flat piece of aluminium. I'll add some links to those at the end of the instructable.

g4ipz in reply to ArvidJense

4 hours ago

Reply

I did have a small sandwich oven which I added a thermostat to and used as a reflow oven. Unfortunately the elements failed (I suspect due to the thermostat action) and I have been unable to replace it so while the wife's out I simply use the main kitchen electric oven and a decent thermometer probe :-). This is a great device for repairing failures due to ageing of lead-free solder assembled PCBs. Some small travel irons (or normal ones come to that) also work well as solder flow hot plates too

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ImmortalSoFar says:

5 hours ago

Reply

Thanks for this. The last time I inadvertently ordered smt chips and got 7 of them in a matchstick-sized package, (0.5mm gap, 0.6mm pins) I had to use a soldering iron and a magnifying glass. Your way seems much better!

drzcyy says:

7 hours ago

Reply

To minimise warping of the PCB, and for those who doesnt have a hotplate, can use an oven.

legionmanchild says:

14 hours ago

Reply

anybody have any tips for replacing the "controller" on an SD memory card? The only thing that has stopped me is how small it is, the above tutorial makes sense, but I guess I'm still nervous. I crashed a sailplane and the go pro recording it shattered. I found the SD card but the computer won't recognize it. I figured I could swap the controller, or the flash memory to an identical card and pull the footage as the flash memory chip appears to be completely intact. Any thoughts?

fahadshihab says:
13

20 hours ago

Reply

I couldn't get solder paste in my place, so, rather than using solder paste, i directly modified my soldering iron tip into a needle type. It still works!!! But, the main problem is on precision, if it gets slipped slightly, then... finished!

tzny says:
2

23 hours ago

Reply

Very impressive - I was just recently wondering how hard it would be to solder those miniature surface mounted components. It still doesn't look too easy, but perhaps some practice (and hotplate) would help. How sensitive are those tiny chips to static electricity? Did you use any antistatic precautions? Thanks!

ArvidJense (author) in reply to tzny

7

23 hours ago

Reply

I didn't take any precautions except for working with quality tools and components. Using an anti-static wristband might actually be a good safety measure next time. Actually one of the accelerometers failed to connect on the end product for reasons unknown; it might as well have been damaged by static electricity now I think about it...

dmccormick001 says:

yesterday

Reply

Is there any reason that, once you have finished soldering, you couldn't just turn the hotplate OFF instead of moving the PCB off of it? That way you don't risk bumping or jarring the board and moving the parts while the solder is fluid. Just a thought.... Nice instructable!

ArvidJense (author) in reply to dmccormick001

7

23 hours ago

Reply

My reason is that I'm making a small series of boards and the hotplate is only big enough to fit two boards on. Your way might just be superior as the fast heating/cooling could have the small chance of putting
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undesirable stress on the components and damage them. Thanks for reading the instructable!

fadecomic says:

yesterday

Reply

When you say "dip the pads", is that the same as "apply solderpaste to the pads"? Also, if you apply the the paste between the pads, what keeps a short from happening? The capillary action is sufficient to draw up all of the solder? Thanks for a great instructable.

ArvidJense (author) in reply to fadecomic

7

23 hours ago

Reply

Yes and yes. The green stuff is actually a solder mask meant to repel solder. Combined with the capillary action, the only reason for shorts would be too much solder. You can just check this by eye or with a multimeter.

kashivar says:

yesterday

Reply

really seems very easy to do. will surely try this. It will be more beneficial if you had given the brand of solder paste used and supplier in small quantity. also the picture shows some syringes, what is the use of these?

ArvidJense (author) in reply to kashivar

7

yesterday

Reply

I didn't buy specifically this tube of solder paste; I just used what was available to me. So it felt out of place to make a recommendation. The main goal of the instructable was to show ease of this type of soldering. The syringes are used to carefully apply the solder paste or flux to an area. I personally found it more accurate to use a little piece of wire, but they're both valid methods.

oppie says:

yesterday

Reply

You can get some manual dispensing tools here: http://www.zeph.com/zt5_dir.htm I have the power palm plunger and a few different types of dispensing needles (Luer Lok to fit on solder paste syringe). I have a hot air bath that preheats to 150C and then a small hot air pencil that does the melting. Great for smt leads but where there is a large central heat pad, nothing beats a hotplate. With the hotplate, have a shelf to the side at the same level as the hot area. You can use this to load and unload the boards by simply pushing them. Less chance of dropping...

victorjung says:
3

3 days ago

Reply

thanks for this great post, what soldering paste do you recommand, i want to try but i have no idea what to choose! is this one okay?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weak-Acid-SMD-Soldering-Pa... cause i can't figure if it's actually a soldering paste, or only some flux... What would you use if you haven't access to a heating plate like yours? i know some people use mini cheap electric oven... Finally my last question :)

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Do you have to choose a special grade of board ? or FR4 board are ok to hold thoose temperature? Thanks a lot and a well made instructable!

ArvidJense (author) in reply to victorjung

7

3 days ago

Reply

Thanks! What you've linked is definitely flux. Solder paste is a grayish mass with mud consistency, flux looks more like grease. Good questions, but but I don't have enough experience to give you an educated answer. You'd rather head over to a place like this: http://www.reddit.com/r/askelectronics

olinolli says:

3 days ago

Reply

Nice! Where'd you get that hotplate? Looks like a good piece of kit

ArvidJense (author) in reply to olinolli

7

3 days ago

Reply

Its in my universities electronics lab. But I have seen people use a normal/cheap hotplate in combination with a small piece of aluminium.

gpearston says:

3 days ago

Reply

Nice job. What is the model of the Weller station, that thing is impressive.

ArvidJense (author) in reply to gpearston

7

3 days ago

Reply

Its this one: http://nl.rs-online.com/web/p/soldering-stations/4... http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/17636.pdf I'm very lucky to have access to this machine at my university lab; it would be quite an investment for persona use!

joey56 says:

5 days ago

Reply

That's awesome. Please follow me

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