Can one do at least basic microelectronics and IC soldering in the context of a uni robotics and electronics club?
Or does this kind of stuff require expensive installations and equipment?
Any interesting resources on the topic?
What do you mean by "basic microelectronics"?
You can solder ICs anywhere with a hot air station or a over. Not difficult at all.
>>1009817
You can solder smt ICs with a regular soldering iron. Need hot air to remove them w/o cutting the pins off. Need a fancy ass setup to deal with bga shits reliably.
>>1009815
>Can one do at least basic microelectronics and IC soldering in the context of a uni robotics and electronics club?
It is easily possible to use MOST surface-mount IC's yourself. {---I dunno a whole lot here, but will say what I do think I know....---}
Pic related: there is little circuit boards made that have solder pads for various kinds of surface-mount chips on them, with traces that lead out to thru-hole pads that you can solder wires into.
You can solder SMD chips onto these with a decent soldering iron, solder and flux. And some practice too, of course... Search "SMD soldering" on youtube for videos showing various techniques.
There is also a method called "dead bug style" where you get some thin bus wire, and solder your own wires onto each of the SMD's contacts so you can use it on a normal prototyping board.
There is also a style of IC packaging/mounting called "PLCC", where the chip isn't soldered at all. You solder a base down, and the chip just snaps into the base.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_leaded_chip_carrier
This sounds great, but it has two problems:
1--it's a rather expensive mounting method. And due to that,,,,
2--not a lot of chips are available in this type of package, and those that are tend to be rather expensive. The main reason this type of mount is used is if the chip is fragile and could be easily damaged by the heat of soldering.
Be warned that longer distances between chips means that each connection has more capacitance and may have more inductance as well. These can *easily* interfere with high-speed signal transmission.
As a general rule, it is best to try to keep the physical connection lengths as short as practically possible.
It is entirely possible for a chip to suffer from its own EMF interference, and PCB layouts sometimes have to be revised multiple times to reduce this problem to acceptable levels.
>>1009815
Depends how micro
quad flat pack? maybe, it will be frustrating and you'll need a PCB
QFN? probably not.
