Socket to Me?

[Garth Wilson]

(09-27-2021 11:15 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  and protect chips from the heat of soldering

Soldering heat will not damage the chips. I've seen chips actually running (not just in storage) at over 350°C (662°F), as I was looking at the actual bare die (ie, the actual silicon chip inside the IC) with an infrared microscope. I don't know how much over 350°C, because I was not allowed to get calibration data beyond that. They would not have lasted long going that hot, but it did not suddenly destroy them. The die will definitely not get anywhere near that hot when you solder one pin at a time by hand. When ICs are soldered by machine, whether wave-soldered, IR, whatever, the whole thing gets well above the melting point of the solder all at once, ie, all pins and the body too. I've been responsible for millions of ICs in our company over the years, and have never seen one fail from soldering heat.

Whether or not I use sockets in personal projects depends on several factors.