Is it really effective to go for 0805 packages of SMD components?

Hey guys, I haven’t use SMD component yet. Currently, I started my design with DIP Components. So, I am not having enough knowledge about SMD Packages but as per instructions from my guide, they suggest me to use SMD Packages. But still one doubt in my mind why to prefer packages instead of others. Can someone clarify my doubt??

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is the smallest SMT resistor that is still easy to solder.
is also still quite doable for most people, but it’s getting a bit smallish, and therefore more difficult.
and smaller gets hard without very good equipment such as stereo microscopes. (10x magnification is enough)

The bigger packages such as are also easy to solder, and sometimes have the advantage that you can route 2 unrelated tracks under them. Sometimes these bigger packages are needed because of power dissipation, for example with low value shunt resistors.

also has the benefit that it fits quite well on vero board, or on anything with a “standard” 100mil distance. is hard to fit on vero board because it’s too small.

A good way to start is to buy a “SMD sample book” from Ebay / Ali / China. You can get books with complete E12 range, and 50 or 100 pieces of cut tape in each size you want for around EUR25.

You can also buy these books with an transistor or diode assortment. Each shop has different transistors in them, so search for the datasheets to get an idea of the spread of the components.

Then there is technique and tools.
For hand soldering I prefer to first put a dab of solder on all the right pads, then exchange solder for tweezers in my left hand, place all components and solder them with the solder already on the PCB, and then solder the left side. Good tweezers are mandatory. With bad quality tweezers you can not pick up components reliably.
MikesElectricStuff has a nice overview with tips for SMT soldering, but there are also many other tutorials on youtube.

is my go to if other people may have to assemble them, I’m personally very comfortable with , passable on ’s and mainly struggle with ’s,

Key points are keep the spacing to the default courtyards at minimum, and increase based on how well you can handle precision,

I use gel flux to cheat quite a lot, pre tin the pads, put a small dot of gel flux on the package locations, put the part in place, the flux mostly keeps it held in place, then heat with low airflow with the hot air gun and in most cases it will self align onto the pads, occasionally needing a nudge to get the second pad to stick,

I would say for a beginner, work off at least a 2mm gap between fab layer outlines on SMD components, I work off a 1mm, and its just on the edge where sometimes long rows of components will be a little annoying to separate from there neighbor. If your really not confident that 3mm,

I have had unsteady hands all of my life; mild “essential tremor”. I am 68. When SMT was introduced, I was intimidated by it. But nowadays I can hand solder chips routinely. One recommendation is that I like to use a relatively small footprint for my chips.This provides more room on the pad for the soldering iron tip.

’s? No. I have done them, but half the time I lose the chip in the drop of solder on the end of the soldering iron.

In my opinion, SMT is often easier than thru hole because you do not need to worry about holes filling with solder. I think it is much easier to change values of an chip on the board than to change values of a 0.25W thru hole resistor. So dive into it with courage. I do recommend a desolder tweezer. Two soldering irons can also work to heat both pads at the same time.

In my lab I stock and resistors but not s, with a few exceptions for milliohm values. If you have a small footprint, it might be easier to solder an chip onto those pads than an .

That usually requires a paste stencil, too. I have experience only with steel stencils, but I know it can be frustrating to learn to use it. can be soldered with an iron and the stencil isn’t needed. may barely be possible with an iron, too, but only with a good microscope (and good component placement as you said), and I don’t recommend it. Additionally it may be surprising that going to from saves relatively little space. With those sizes the tracks and especially vias take quite much of the space in the board and is worth it only if you can go for really thin tracks and smaller than standard vias – and actually really need all the space you can get.

As for the original question – why not just go after their recommendation. I think the opinions in this thread confirm that suggestion. The question of vs. is interesting in its own right, but not relevant for that.

I used to use for it one 110W trafo soldering iron and one soldering iron with sharp tip. When I have the element (typically ) taken out of PCB and between then I switch off the trafo soldering iron and the element stays at it and it is cold at once. Then I take tweezers to my second hand and take the element off the iron (by switching it on for a second).
In past (when I didn’t had those iron with sharp tip) I have also done special shaped wires used with trafo iron to heat both ends of elements like (I had also special shapes (with one leg bigger) for SOT23 and SOT323).

We switched from TH elements to and than to and then to and we finished that process in previous century. Now we use mainly and some (mainly 100n blocking capaciotors to place them close to IC pin pairs (VCC+GND) and to not block tracks from next pads.

Hello! Well as a result of all the great feedback from the component packages, I’m doing another post about SMD packages!  I may be using some of the terminology from the last post in here as well, so just in case, here is the last post

First off, SMD means Surface Mount Device; There is another acronym used that means pretty much the same thing which is SMT, and that means Surface Mount Technology.  This’ll be describing the various packages that an LED can come in, as well as resistor and the more common capacitor packages as well as many other surface mount devices.  The big rule about SMD is that many packages are represented by a 4 digit code.  The first two digits indicate its length and the second two digits indicate its width.  So an package would be .06″ x .03″ .  Although if it isn’t represented by a 4 digit code, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t an SMD component, all that means is that you’ll have to do a little more searching to find the dimensions of your specific component.

The most common packages are the:  ,  , , , and the SOT. although we will be discussing the , , , SOD, PLCC, Chimney-Type, , , A, C, D, E.  The space on the board where the SMD will sit is called the footprint, and the footprint is like a little diagram as to where the component is to be soldered on the board and how much space it takes up.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Smd Led.

More common:

To start off, the !  The has the dimensions of .06″ x .03″ and has the contacts to be soldered on each end of the component.  This package is the most common as it is small and very straight forward to put on.  It always has 2 leads on the underside or the ends, unless it is an extremely special component.  The is used for LEDs, Capacitors, Resistors, Thermosistors, Varisistors, Fuses, Inductors, Chokes, a few IC’s.  There are some other kinds as well, I only listed the ones that digi-key had over 500 items of.

Next, ! It is .08″ x .05″ and the footprint is the same as the , which also means that the contacts to be soldered are in the same place as well.  The can be used for the same applications as the although it is larger, obviously, and as a result is usually used for applications that require a little more “oomph” , like a larger capacitor value than an can offer.  But other than that, it’s pretty much the same.

: The dimensions of this are .12″ x .06″, this means it is a little longer but not much wider then the previous packages.  Although in terms of difference, there isn’t much.  Basically just a size up from the .  Footprint and usage is the same with regards to the size.

The  is .25″ x .12″ and is quite similar to the others.  One of the more noticeable differences is that it is actually a little thinner than the previous listed.  The is mostly used for capacitors and resistors, and not so much LED’s.  Although that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, the package is just a bigger version of the previous packages.

The SOT package stands for Small Outline Transistor.  Although this one uses “gull-wing” leads, rather than the leads like the ones before. The most popular out of this package is the SOT-23 which generally will have 3, 5, or 6 leads.  Keep in mind these leads come out of chip, unlike the previous SMD packages.  Seeing as how this package is centered around transistors, that’s mainly what it is used for.  Zener diodes, rectifiers, field-effect transistors, RF diodes, and many other various transistors, along with switch IC, amplifier IC, buffers, gates, and inverters, LED Drivers, voltage regulators, temperature sensors, and transducers.  The list can still go on and on.  If you haven’t noticed already, this package is rarely used for resistors, so don’t expect that.

The package is pretty similar to the in terms of what it is used for.  It is .35″ x .28″ and it will usually house a single LED.  That is the big difference between the two.   has one led, will have 3.

The  package is .5″ x .5″ and is used for High Brightness, Bi-color, and RGB LEDs and I personally love it!  The footprint is a square and the package will generally have 6 leads that get soldered to the board.

Less common:

The others will start with the .  It has the .06″ x 06″ dimensions and is the first of ours listed to be a perfect square.  These are more widely used for bi-color or tri-color SMD LED’s, although they are also used for ceramic capacitors, chip resistors, and a few simple logic gates.  Seeing as how they aren’t as common, it is normal for their to be less typical options for this package.  Footprint is still similar to the ones before.

The package is .12″ x .04″ and has a similar footprint to the others.  This is sometimes called the Right-Angle SMT package mainly because it’s a package that has the component at a right angle to the board.  That is the norm for this package although it can also be normal and have it on the bottom like the others.  Because of the right-angle reputation of this package, it is almost strictly used for LEDs with a rounded lens, but there are some chip resistors that use this package.

: this package is .12″ x .1″ and is used for various capacitors such as ceramic, tantalum, Mica, and PTFE, as well as re-settable fuses, inductors, coils, chokes, a few LED’s, and thousands of resistors.  It sorta looks like a little box.  Like before, the footprint is still similar to all the others.

SOD: a lesser common package than the even less common, is the Small Outline Diode which, by the name, is mainly used for diodes. It is also used for rectifiers and zener diodes.  That’s about it.  The footprint for this component is very similar to the others although the leads come out of the component just a tad.

The PLCC is the Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier, and I’ve mentioned this before, and the full description can be found in my other post that is linked at the top.  I wanted to mention it again because I never did say that it could be surface mounted too.  Well it can!  You would generally get a socket for development, although if you are making a final product for manufacturing, you would solder this chip directly onto the board and it would still work fine.

The Chimeny-Type: LED’s are accepted to be the only use for this package.  It is a right-angle SMT although the leads aren’t just on the component, they come out and it almost resembles a through-hole component but with the leads bent a little bit.  As you can see in the picture, it works great for 3mm LEDs.  This is pretty rare, actually.

The A,C,D, and E packages are mainly for capacitors, specifically Electrolytic.  These packages aren’t very common among all components, although expect to see them when looking for surface mount capacitors.  There are some other packages like V and H.  The A package starts at 10V and then the E goes to 25V so the rest are in between.

So that’s that! There are more packages out there, I describe some of the more common ones.  If you’d like to do some more research, here are a few links:

Footprints : http://www.siongboon.com/projects/-09-07_home_pcb_fabrication/footprint/index.htm

Overview of many SMD packages : http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/data/smt/smt_packages.php

Surface mount soldering tutorials: http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/category/2

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