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How to solder a 1 mm x 1.5 mm, 6 pad USON package IC

frank-bussFrank Buss wrote 06/22/2018 at 16:51 • 4 min read • Like

This page describes how I tested a TPS3420 reset chip on a breadboard. First I glued the chip in dead bug style on a SMD adapter board:

Then I tinned the pads of the IC and of the SMD adapter (the pink things at the left side are my fingers) :

For connecting the pads of the IC to the pads of the adapter, I used enameled wire, AWG 36 (0.12 mm diameter) :

To remove the enamel, I used a scrap board and some more tin. The lacquer melts after some time and the wire gets tinned as well:

Then I soldered one side of the wire to the SMD pad, first, and cut it to length. The scratches on the IC are in the flux residue, when I tried to position the wire with a scalpel. You need eagle eyes or a good microscope to do this.

Then I soldered the other end the IC pad:

If you move the soldering iron to strong, or apply too much heat or for too long, pads disappear, as happened for me. Buy some spare part.

Finally I plugged in some pin headers in a breadboard and placed the SMD adapter on it. This guarantees that the pin headers are straight when soldering.

Connected in a testing circuit:

Testing: green is both button inputs and yellow is the reset output. 

As specified in the datasheet, reset triggers after holding down both button inputs for 12.5 s, with TS=VCC configuration.

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Jan wrote 08/20/2018 at 04:12 point

Cool description of the process! That's the way I will be soldering my wires to the TMP112 chips for my logger. Can't glue it down unfortunately. I'll have to find a way to fixate the chip while soldering wires to it. I guess I'll use some kind of mini vise or my smd tweezers :) 

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K.C. Lee wrote 08/19/2018 at 21:12 point

FYI: your datasheet link is messed up:  http://http//www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps3420.pdf

Correct one is   http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps3420.pdf

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Frank Buss wrote 08/19/2018 at 21:50 point

thanks, fixed

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