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Here is datasheet of the TGA 2214-CP amplifier: TGA 2214-CP

The pins can be seen on page 11. It turns out that pin 7 and 9 are very close to the central pin 1, as well as pin 8 and 10 to pin 2 (about 1/2 milimeter.)

The central pins 1 and 2 are supposed to be connected to the central pins of SMA connectors.

I don't understand how it is possible to solder manually pin 1 and 2 without soldering with them pin 7 and 9 or pin 8 and 10. Maybe it does not harm to cut pin 7, 8, 9 and 10, as they seem to be just ground pins connected to the chassis, perhaps to curve them outwards to make more room for the soldering.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ 'just' ground pins are just very important to connect. Yes, they are close. They are meant to be that close. Use a soldering iron rather than a plumber's flame. \$\endgroup\$
    – Neil_UK
    Commented Jun 28 at 13:23

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Page 11 tells you to solder the module manually. Do not use a reflow oven or hot air.

enter image description here

The drawing of the evaluation board shows that the solder pads are a bit longer than the pins. That makes it pretty straight forward to solder the pins down.

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  1. Place the part.
  2. Touch the point of the soldering iron to a pad such that it touches the pad and the pin. Do this from the end of the pad.
  3. Touch the solder to the junction of the pad and the pin.
  4. Follow the recommended pattern for soldering the pins to avoid overheating the module and to avoid mechanical stress on the module.

The pins are plenty wide enough with plenty of space for the tip of the soldering iron. You do need to use a fine tip iron and a low temperature solder - 100% tin or solder with silver will usually have a higher melting temperature. You'll want tin-lead solder or a special low temperature, lead free solder.

  • Do NOT remove pins.
  • Solder all pins.

The pins next to the RF signal pins are ground pins. They are required so that the impedance of the signal tracks is correct.

This example photo I made a couple of years ago shows soldering an SMD IC with smaller pins and spacing than the module you are looking at:

enter image description here

This IC was installed and removed several times by hand on a PCB without solder mask:

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Its pins and the spacing are finer than on your module. I was using a cheap hardware store soldering iron with a tip that I had modified for fine work. The tips for such cheap irons are simply copper with a terribly thin iron plating - it doesn't matter much if the plating is there or not because it'll wear out in no time.

You'll want to use a good iron with good temperature regulation and a fine tip (I use a 1.2mm chisel tip on my new iron) that goes with the iron.

You'll need to practice before you tackle what looks like an expensive module. You can buy practice kits that have PCBs and dummy ICs, or you can buy a bunch of cheap SMD ICs from e-Bay or Amazon and solder them on scrap PCBs.

It shouldn't be difficult to solder this module, but you do need a bit of practice and skill.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I second the practice part. The ground pins may surprise you at how much the soldering iron cools. The ground plane will certainly conduct heat away from the pin. When the solder melts the phase change will absorb heat further cooling the tip. The phase change will help prevent the heat moving up the pin. The 2-5 second time is important to reduce heat flow up the pins into the part. The rf pins won't have the thermal mass and should solder quickly. So you need to practice to get a feel for the PCB thermal characteristics. Clean and shiny tips. \$\endgroup\$
    – user319836
    Commented Jun 28 at 12:58

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