How to breadboard with WSON devices.

[electrojim]

eBay and others list 'carriers' for SMD chips, tiny boards that convert ultraminiature ICs into DIP packages that can be plugged into protoboards. But I can't find a carrier for a 'WSON' 12-pin device like this one:

Anyone have any ideas? I don't care about that thermal pad on the bottom, but sure need to make contact with those 12 pins. Thanks!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If you can't find one, then design your own and have a batch made - cheap enough at JLCPCB, and they even provide the software to do it.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I didn't look, but www.proto-advantage.com has a very wide selection. They call the pad at the bottom a power pad.
When searching pitch is probably most important. Some pads are bigger to accommodate multiple footprints.
They also offer a service where they will mount a digikey p/n on the board. They offer stencils as well. Machine pins and square pins are options as well.

This https://www.proto-advantage.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2700126 is the only 0.45 pitch adapter I found.
I can't tell if it would work.

 

[electrojim]

Hey, thanks guys!

Nigel, your idea is what I'd do if I had more devices with this pinout coming down the pike, but all I want to do is prove that one switching regulator will do the job, and don't want to put all that effort and time delay into the project. Worst case I'd instead superglue the device upside down to a hunk of board and try to solder-tack wirewrap wire pigtails to pins. That is if I could see the darned chip, let alone have a steady enough hand to do it.

Keepit, thanks a lot for that link to proto-advantage; I wasn't aware of them. I found one part that would be ideal, except that the pitch is 0.5mm instead of 0.45mm. What I'll do is dummy-up the carrier and the part in CAD and see if it just might do the job, or whether the 'creep' of the difference would short pins at the end of the rows. I'll keep this dialog open and 'show my work' after I do the simulation.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Digikey also sells some of the proto-advantage parts, but they use the brand chip-quick. I have purchased from PA and, of course, digikey.

 

[electrojim]

Thanks, everyone. Seems like the package I'm looking at isn't supported by either Proto Advantage or Chip Quik. BUT... Proto Advantage does make a carrier that almost fits, as I mentioned. So I made a made a quick drawing of the carrier pins at 0.5mm spacing, and of the chip, at 0.45mm spacing. If one is quite careful, here's how the pads line up, black are the carrier pads, red are the chip pins... one row only:
:

So I think I'll invest in a few of these and see if I can do this. Turns out the part is actually a QFN-type of package, but with those 'underneath' pins on only two sides instead of four, and with that 0.45 spacing. Here's TI's spec on the part:

Thanks to all!

 

[electrojim]

Aha! Turns out that Proto Advantage DOES have a carrier for this very part, just took a while to find it. By the way, that package is called a DFN, which is like a QFN but with just two rows of 6 pads, not pads on all four sides. Carriers are on order; I'm stoked!

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Great. I did "pitch .45mm" and got 1 hit.