Breakout Boards

So what do you do if you want to assemble a prototype of a project based on an IC which is only available in Surface Mount Package like one of these?

You make use of an appropriate Breakout Board (BoB). Lets look at some of these:

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Quad Flat Package (QFP)| upto 64 Pins | 0.8mm Pitch

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Quad Flat Package (QFP)| upto 160 Pins | 0.5mm Pitch

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Quad Flat Package (QFP)| upto 160 Pins | 0.65mm Pitch

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Shrink Small Outline Package (SSOP)| upto 40 Pins | 0.65mm Pitch

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Small Outlined Integrated Circuit (SOIC)| upto 28 Pins | 1.27mm Pitch

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All the above breakout boards are available in Mumbai, India from Visha Electronics Corporation

Make sure that before you solder your IC to the breakout board, you do remove the extra tinning from the tracks using a soldering iron and copper desoldering braid as shown in the photo below. Use of soldering paste while doing this is recommended. This will flatten the tracks and the you would be able to easily and accurately position the SMD IC before soldering it.

Eagle design files of a few other breakout boards are also available here.
Please note that breakout boards are not recommended for use with ICs which deal with high frequency signals (i.e. those above a few megahertz)