[NLRS] Re: LFCSP (was re:power measurement)

[Ford Peterson]

Here is another link from a fella that tried it last night.  Some smoke appeared from the 50 ohm dummy load he was making, but the board looks none-the-worse for wear.

http://www.qrpradio.com/pub/Ham/SDR/SMT/SMT.html

He is using 1206 parts from the looks of it.  I have no problem soldering 1206 parts.  But the technique is amazing.  And he's doing parts on both sides of the board to form a 50 ohm QRP dummy load.

Here is the northrup grumman data sheet on their paste:

http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Kester/Web%20Data/R500%20Solder%20Paste.pdf

Here is the DigiKey catalog page.  

http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T061/1569.pdf

Major OUCH!  $42 without the tip or the plunger for the syringe.  Get this, they must be 2nd day air freight from DigiKey (Air freight from Thief River Falls to rural MN--go figure!)  Must be kept refrigerated too.  I suspect the tip can be used to inject Meth Amphetamines too so they are a bit leary about selling the tips for the solder syringes.  Maybe a diabetic's needle?  No matter--where the heck does one get the needle?

My gut is telling me that this is going to still require a microscope and some decent equipment to clean up the bridges when done cooking.  And I have yet to find anything that shows people soldering down pads on the bottom of parts.

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com