Prototyping with a very small surface mount connector/socket

Question

I've got a Satellite modem with a connector that mates with a tiny 10pin by 10pin Samtec SS4 series surface mount connector.

The question is, how would I prototype with this component? I am thinking I will need to get a custom breakout board created and someone with precision equipment to solder the socket onto it for me?

Essentially, the strip has a centre-to-centre pin pitch of just 0.4mm and head pin is 0.23mm in width, making the distance between pins a tiny 0.17mm.

More information on the socket: http://www.samtec.com/documents/webfiles/cpdf/SS4-XX-X.XX-X-D-X-XX-TR-FOOTPRINT.pdf

Answer 1

When having to use connectors like these, and the associated high tech parts that tend to be used with them, it is often advisable to rethink and re-define what prototyping actually means. I would suggest that rather than get hung up on breakout boards that you consider a first pass at your circuit board design to be your prototype. Use all the part footprints that are for the target parts for your assembly. Feel free to add what ever additional test access connections and debug hardware as required to this initial design. This approach has many advantages including a main one that it puts the parts into the actual configuration they will be for your final product so that you are testing something real as opposed to debugging ghost problems on some cobbled together "quick setup".

Answer 2

You can probably make such a breakout using laser toner transfer techniques - it might take a few tries before you get the hang of getting one intact, but once you figure it out it has a fairly high yield rate. Making the pads longer than recommended may help with hand solderability, especially if you go with a prototype fab that applies solder mask such that the traces themselves aren't solderable extensions of the pads.

The real secret to soldering something like that by hand is to not try to solder the individual pins, but to get just the right amount of solder on a larger iron tip, and flux well, so that surface tension causes the solder to wet the individual contacts and not bridge between the several which the iron is touching at any given time.

You probably will bridge a few, but it's no big deal to fix. Sometimes re-application of the iron with a wiping motion towards the traces will cause the excess to flow there and remove the bridge. If not, very fine copper braid (the smallest you can find) will absorb the solder, though it may take a bit longer than you expect to heat it up to flow temperature. Fluxing the braid helps if it is not pre-treated.

A binocular microscope can be a great help since the focal length tends to be long enough that you can actually work under it, but a cheap 10x loupe is fine for up close post inspection and will help find problems you might have to go back and fix.