a reflow technique is about the only way to get reliable BGA soldering, but for anything other than hobby applications you’re crazy - BGAs are typically examined via x-ray to make sure the entire chip is soldered correctly, and that’s not something you’d undertake at home (well you might, but your neighbours may not like you much if they find out you’re doing that :))
I’ve seen BGA soldering demo’ed on a skillet technique and in a reflow toaster oven, and even small pin-count with a hot air SMD rework station (check out Dangerous prototype videos) but reliability is the question…
Actually, yes for the L6470 I will have to X-Ray the board to ensure reliable soldering of the EPAD. I wanted to see if I could pay an X-Ray clinic to do the shots for me.
@ dejan
Well, the Reflow kit definitely works, I made tens of assembly, but small smt boards. Two proto boards had BGA (PIC32MX664 10x10mm BGA 121pin) and in the first one I made, I got a problem due to some pins not well soldered. In any case I just used this system much of the time for prototypes. Without stencil it is not usable, unless some tricky solution (like hard plastic sheet as stencil, but need to much time to made cut this stuff).
The controller I think is quite easy to reverse engineering … the temperature/time profile can be found on the net.
I will post some picture when I’ll be in my lab on monday.
My main goal is have some cheap machine which can solder BGA chips…
This SD Chip chip have 52 pins(solder balls 0.76mm) which have 2mm distance between each pin. Chip have active only 13 pins and I can easy test if connection is ok by connecting other side of trace to SD card reader and see if normaly work on pc…
First Im think about IR rework station something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270835656181
and solder resistors and other component’s with normal solder stations, but if I can do all in one step with some oven and controler for it it will be better…
I’ve never bought from this guy, but 2 friends of mine were really satisfied with reworks stations from him.
He has a lot of items !! http://stores.ebay.it/accuniexpress
Main problem of this seller is because it is not located in EU and then we have big import customs(20% VAT + 5% import customs) and also shipping price is very expensive(cca. 100€)…
He have one cheap thing all in one - owen and controler:
T962 Infrared SMD & BGA IC Automatic Reflow Oven
T962 = £107
Shipping = £90
Price = £197
+20% VAT = £236,4
+5% Import customs = £248,22 = 293,33€
If I buy from http://www.reflow-kit.com:
Reflow Controller V2 = 129€
Reflow Oven = 59€
+Shipping = 161,61€ ??? (Are they crazy?)
Total price = 349,61€
VAT and customs is charged over the product and not over shipping fee… So look for the cheapest T962. Thats why some suppliers make the product cheaper and charge a higher shipping fee 8)
@ RobvanSchelven: Sorry but you are wrong. In our country they are everytime when Im buy something from outside EU calculate customs from total price(product price and shipping)…
Also total price for customs free is pretty low(20€)…
Also in Italy you pay duty tax on the total amount of the invoice, shipping included.
Custom make total invoice exchange to Euros. Then apply 4-5% (depends on goods), than on the amount calculated in Euros, they apply VAT% (21% here). With small package (like components) often you don’t pay nothing. But with big boxes normally you don’t escape.
I guess I’ll throw in my 2 cents: In Trinidad and Tobago it’s vat and duty on the cost + shipping, where vat is 15% and duty varies with the whims of the Custom’s Officer.
I know, old topic. But today I did a first DIY hot plate soldering test with great results.
What you need:
some inox or aluminium plate (I used a cover from a Inox enclosure).
a vitro-cermaic hot plate in your kitchen
optional: a IR thermo gun
I presoldered some pads on the PCB, where I was going to place a 4 pin SMD component.
I turned on the plate and adjusted the thermostat to get around 300°C (position 2 was just fine, the plate has 9 positions). Put the inox/alu plate on it and let it heat.
Then I put the PCB on the inox plate and checked until the solder became liquid. Then I placed the 4 pin component on the board using tweezers. Let it cool down without stirring.
I did this test because I need to solder a fine-pitch (0.6mm) LCD connector that has very short leads (0.5mm). The first try was by hand, but the LCD connector didn’t survive, now I ordered some more and will try to solder them on the kitchen hot plate when they arrive… Wish me luck
I already learned that it is better to place the inox plate and board before turning on the hot plate. As then the temperature of everything is heating slowly…
