BGA (Ball Grid Array) is a pretty popular surface chip mount package that utilizes a grid of solder balls to create connections. However, this solder ball gets old and worn out. When this happens, you need to remove these old, worn-out solder balls and replace them with new ones. To achieve this, you have to utilize a process known as reballing, and that is where the plat BGA comes in. So what does the Plat BGA do? Why is it essential in Ball Grid Arrays? And why should you get it pronto?
A bit about Reballing
Engineers built BGAs to make an accurate chip to circuit board contact. Therefore, once a connection has been made, gaining access to the link becomes pretty tricky. But, sometimes circumstance, such as a worn-out solder ball, forces us to recreate every single solder ball joint for our chip to function well. If such as case has ever struck you, then Reballng might have been your only chance for redemption. Reballing entails the removal and replacement of old BGA solder balls.
Reballing is mostly undertaken on:
- Computers motherboards
- Gaming motherboards
- Laptop motherboards
The reason behind the high number of reballing cases in these motherboards is a chip known as a Video Graphics chip. The Video Graphics chip gets hit by so many broken solder joints that require repair.
BGA chips also get hit by broken solder joints. However, BGA-chip-broken-solder-joint cases are not as many as those of Video Graphics chips, but they still cause alarm.
Effects of an incompetent Solder Joint
Bad BGA solder joints have adverse effects on a gadget. If, for instance, a bad solder joint hits your IC, it might render the IC useless. That might lead to your device not even turning on.
If your Video Graphics Card gets a broken solder joint, this might cause your screen to go blank. Unfortunately, that means that nothing will display on the screen until you fix the broken joint. That is why reballing is crucial.
Why do BGA chips require reballing?
BGA chips require reballing due to four main reasons:
- Simply due to overuse – After utilizing your BGA chip for a while, the solder joints grow old and get worn out. It becomes useful if you undertook reballing, or the chip would become utterly useless. The same case applies to Video Graphics Cards.
- Replacement purposes – sometimes BGA solder balls just need replacements with new ones.
- Upgrading purposes – Sometimes, BGA solder balls require an upgrade to match the modern market’s requirements.
- Overheating – When solder balls overheat, they affect their solder joints, leading to a joint break. But that is not the worst that could happen due to overheating. If the heat exceeds, it could cause harm to the Circuit Board leading to more damage. Therefore, you need to replace overheating solder balls pronto!
Where does Plat BGA come in?
Plat BGA is a Strong sheet of metal with many holes to accommodate multiple solder balls in the reballing process.
In most cases, you can make Plat BGA out of high-quality, durable steel. Therefore, you can heat the sheet directly using a BGA machine or a hot air gun to loosen the solder ball by melting the solder. When the solder balls are loose, reballing becomes super easy to undertake.
However, you need five more supplies to execute the reballing procedure efficiently.
The 5 supplies
These supplies are:
- Soldering Iron – It is a hand tool that helps you in the soldering process. Using this tool, you can easily heat up and melt soldering metal to fix broken joints between the BGA ball grid.
Soldering irons have two components in total, the heated metal tip, and the insulated handle.
- Soldering Paste – Soldering pastes is a popular component manufacturers use in the PCB assembly process. The primary purpose of this paste is to mount various components onto the surface of the PCB. Therefore, this component will come in handy when we are mounting our chip back onto the PCB.
- Desoldering wire – A desoldering wire or simply a desoldering wick is an impeccably braided 18 – 42 copper wire. These copper wires have a rosin flux coating to boost their efficiency and durability. They usually come in roll variations.
The desoldering wire’s main job is to eject the solder that lies around and onto the broken solder joint. It does so by effectively soaking the joints solder using metal solder.
- BGA Chip Case – A standard case that you can utilize to hold your chip in place during the reballing process.
- Solder Balls – BGA solder balls are tiny solder components that take the shape of a sphere. You can find these components on the bottom part of the BGA chip. The main job of these balls is to make a competent chip to Circuit Board connections. Then, the chip utilizes these connections to send and receive electronic signals.
- BGA Reworking machine – It provides sufficient heat to help you remove or attach your BGA chip.
Advantages of utilizing Plat BGA in the Reballing procedure
If you are looking to employ Plat BGA to carry out Reballing, then here are some benefits that you are likely to reap:
- Saving on cost – Plat BGAs are not expensive. Hence, you can get one at a pretty low price and utilize it to get your BGA chip up and running.
- Easy to utilize – When working with the plat BGA, you’ll note that it is user-friendly. The grids that contain holes to fit the solder ball are super easy to spot. Then, to work with the grid, all you have to do is place the chip onto the grid, and you are all set.
- It can withstand high temperatures – Plat BGAs have a high melting point. Therefore, the chances of this metal sheet melting during reballing are pretty slim.
On top of all that, you also get to optimize your chip’s performance and efficiency.
Conclusion
Plat BGAs are, without a doubt, impeccable at what they do. These fantastic tools help revive broken solder joints in video graphic chips, IC, and other BGAs. In addition, they are easy to utilize, efficient, and cost-friendly, which makes them the perfect tool to use for reballing purposes. Therefore, if you have been struck by a broken solder joint, do not hesitate to work with this item. It does not disappoint.
