Electronic – How to solder surface mount chip

packagessoldering

I have to solder a chip in a TSSOP-20 package on a board but unfortunately I have no "pcb oven". During the design I had access to a such oven but it's no longer possible. After some search on internet, I found many post about DIY pcb oven. As far as I understood, the heat is monitored to fit the soldering curve on the datasheet.
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I don't have time to make this kind of oven or spare money to buy one. So, I wonder if it's possible to solder the TSSOP-20 chip thanks to an "unmonitored" oven?

Note that I'm jus a hobbyist, I do not need a very high quality weld.

Best Answer

I finally soldered the chip on my own without a reflow oven. It was way easier than I was expecting, thanks to many comments and some videos found on YouTube.

Materials:

  • Soldering iron, 2mm head
  • Solder wire with incorporated flux
  • Flux in a syringe

I first tinned the top-left pin footprint in order to be able to place the chip for further solder. I then melted the tin again and placed the chip with a little clamp with accuracy to make sure that all the pins were on the corresponding pin footprint. I then soldered the opposite pin. After that, I was sure that the chip would not move during the rest of the process.

I started to solder each pin one by one until two pins got linked due to my lack of soldering skill. To correct my mistake, I put a drop of flux on and then I heated both pins with the soldering iron. With much surprise, it appears that it perfectly corrected the mistake. For the other side, I linked half the pins together on purpose and then use some flux. It's way easier, faster, and produced a cleaner soldering result.

Here is the result of the process:

enter image description here

I did some research about the oven part of the post. It appears that it's possible to use an unmonitored heat control oven (like a kitchen oven) to solder an entire board at once. Since it's non-monitored, it is not advisable to solder sensitive chips. However, it's pretty safe to solder every resistor and capacitor with the oven and then solder chips like this with a soldering iron. (Now I know how to do it properly so it's no big deal.)

But please, DO NOT use the oven you are using to bake food!

Solder wire/paste releases toxic fumes when it melts, so use a dedicated oven that you are sure to not use again.

I made this answer with the help of comments left by other users.

This post might seem useless for experienced people but I think it can help other people like me who have no real experience in soldering.

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