On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 02:48:27 +0100, derekhawkins <
eldata@...> wrote:
>
> Your argument makes sense if you're complaining about a lack of
>
> package choices and this may have something to do with your
>
> distributor. If not, then it wasn't economically feasible for your
>
> preferred package to be manufactured anymore.
>
>
> Don't get me wrong....I still buy DIP ICs and thru hole components but
>
> only in quantities for prototype bread boarding. It's SMD all the way
>
> after that....Smaller and cheaper (in most cases). Heck, we're talking
>
> things like one hundred .1uf 16V caps for just over a dollar.
Well, i'm all for SMD, but i can see that it will be very expensive to
make prototypes very soon.
Now you can still sort of find ways to make boards and populating yourself
for most parts, but i'm really too close to the limits of what i can do
for comfort here and they are not stopping making things smaller and
smaller. Power is becoming a real problem - they put 2W losses in a 5x5mm
thin qfp without blinking an eye - you have TO220 size for that normally.
If you don't have real good boards with vias and stuff that's turning into
a real problem. Packages where you could just flange a heatsink on are
long gone.
If they make the spacing much smaller i simple won't be able to make the
traces because of underetching, there isn't much headroom left.
What i'm saying is it will be getting too hard to use many parts soon,
that's all. I would not mind them stopping miniaturization on a package
level right now, it's plenty small for me. After all, components should be
made for humans to use, not ants.
ST