HDD GURU FORUMS

Can anyone provide insight about soldering wires to monolith Micro SD cards ? The pin-points are so small and close to each other that I am having a hard time getting it correct.

Is there a soldering iron or some tool that can help ? Is there a soldering iron with a tip as thin as a needle, litrally speaking, for the purpose of monolith soldering ? Can anyone please provide a link ? I am having a a very hard time trying to get it correct with a soldering iron.

Thanks

I use a tip wich is at least twice the size of the pin-points. Really small tips are not convinient as they don't produce enough heat.
IMHO, It's just a matter of training... The first times, tring to solder one wire will unsolder all others you've already succefully sordered but with time it becomes much easier... Just dont train on a customer case.

JBC Tools have cartridges with tips as small as 0.3mm diameter, maybe even smaller. Their irons are not cheap, however. Sometimes you can buy them used from reputable dealers, like Howard Electronics Instruments.

I have a used one purchased off eBay and wouldn't be without it now.

I agree with Lemmy, It is often thought you need a needle fine tip, but the reason it doesn't produce enough heat is that the air cools the tip too quick. If you are soldering to any sizeable trace such as a ground plane, this cools the tip and solder as well.

Probably the best tool for soldering monoliths is nothing to do with solder... it is a Stereo Microscope. Once you can see properly, the soldering becomes a lot easier.

Tips:
buy some very good solder. I use a multicore type, 60/40 alloy, 5 cores (r cores of flux inside) AU$25 for a large roll of 250Grams

drop a small amount on the monolith to make an upside down cone shape, not too much. Tin the wire if possible, or clean the end of the wire with 1200grit sandpaper, as this is the area the most trouble, getting the solder to stick to the wire. I also use a flux pen on the monolith and wire end.
Look at the soldering iron you have and measure the tip length and inside diameter, then look on ebay for a compatible tip.. there are 2 main sizes IIRC. Then get the longest and thinnest. Don't sharpen your tip ar the coating/tinning that protects it will be gone and the copper underneath will just get wrecked in a short amount of time. The tips are pretty cheap and I have been getting at least 3 months out of 1.

keep a wet sponge while soldering and I also dip the tip in a tub of Soldering paste also got from ebay or Jaycar.


There are some monoliths with no real pads, just traces and tiny Vias. These are a real pain no matter what.

I was bidding on some wire bonding units, Manual Wedge Wire Bonder, Kulicke & Soffa 4123, used to bond wires at micron level to ICs.. but The price went too high

http://www.evansclarke.com.au/detail.asp?id=746212

Nice piece of equipment.

Haltec

Yeah but got up a bit high, though $675 was good for the winner if it works ok.

LarrySabo wrote:JBC Tools have cartridges with tips as small as 0.3mm diameter, maybe even smaller.

Talking to myself again, which is never a good sign, but here is the EEV Blog video on soldering 0.4mm QFN connections with the JBC 0.3mm soldering tip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hBcVt_4d5I

Interesting video. Thank you Larrysabo.

LarrySabo wrote:

LarrySabo wrote:JBC Tools have cartridges with tips as small as 0.3mm diameter, maybe even smaller.

Talking to myself again, which is never a good sign, but here is the EEV Blog video on soldering 0.4mm QFN connections with the JBC 0.3mm soldering tip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hBcVt_4d5I