How to use a "Narrow-body SOIC" size IC?

[RDV]

Here's one I haven't seen. I ordered some free samples from Analog Devices(OP275), and didn't research enough & ended up with 1 normal DIP size IC & 1 Narrow-body SOIC. It's about a quarter of an inch long. Has anyone an idea how to use one of these(it's cute, but tiny).

Regards

RDV

[Peter Snowberg]

No problem...

- Just get a Surfboard for your chip:

http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T031/0919.pdf

- mount the chip by tinning all the pads on the board, then starting at one corner, anchor a lead by touching it with a soldering iron to reflow the solder on the pad, archor the oposite corner, and then solder the rest of the leads.

- wire it up in your circuit.

You can always wire directly to it with #28 or #30 wire as well. Just use solid #22 or larger for the power. I would suggest getting a bottle of liquid flux and some flux stripper. It will make the process much easier. The leads will bend a little to make soldering easier. With this method, you could always wire it into a DIP header and just plug it into a socket in your circuit.

-Peter

[RDV]

:cry: "But I can barely see the bloody thing"! :cry:
I'm gonna see if they'll let me send this one back, so they can send me a DIP size one. Thanks for the suggestion tho Pete!

Regards

RDV

[Peter Snowberg]

I would suggest giving it a shot. Once you have one corner soldered, the rest take about 1/2 second each. I find it easier and faster than dealing with DIP packages.

The only special setup you need is a small iron (20 to 25W) with a small tip, some good fine 63/37 solder and some liquid or paste flux which you can get a radio shack. A little fine solder wick or a solder sucker can be handy too.

A lamp dimmer on a larger (non-thermostatic) iron will also work to make things easier. I use about 550 F and it takes longer to get flux-crud building up on the tip. Fewer fumes too.

Don't let the size fool you, they'er easier to work with than you think.

I also like using 1206 size surface mount components because you can hold them with tweezers and use normal .1" perf board with pads as turret board.  :wink: Just leave a little dot of solder on the first pad, use tweezers to place the component while you reheat that pad with the iron, then add a little solder to the second pad. It goes really fast and there are no leads to bend or cut.

You can practice with cheap parts and any circuit board. I'll even mail you some random SOIC parts and a couple boards to practice with if you want. You can also practice on any normal perf board.

Another way to mount them is to bend up every other lead and attach the ones still going down to pads on .1" perf board. Use #30 wire wrap wire to jumper the "flying" leads to other pads. This method is only good if you can't get a surfboard, or you like to torture yourself.

If you can learn to work with smaller parts, you can get parts now that they just don't make in DIP packages. The AD825 is one example.

The OP275 is a good clean chip. What kind of circuit are you using it in?

-Peter

[RDV]

A Black Cat OD-1.