You might be wondering what an SMD is. SMD stands for a surface mounted device. There are many different ways to go about removing an SMD chip from a board. To go about this safely you could use a desoldering gun, soldering iron and solder wick or other methods. One of the safest ways to do so is to use a simple soldering iron. How do we do this? First you need a soldering iron, flux, and low melt solder. This process is much less complicated than what it is going to sound like so bear with me.
Decide on what you want to use for flux and for low melt solder. For example, a small project requires picking a kit that has both included. These kits are called Fast Chip and can come either with leaded or lead free solder depending on what you need. You want these for small uses because they come with a limited amount of flux and solder. Larger packages of removal alloy and flux are available if you are doing this on a regular basis.
Second, the soldering iron. Now if you have a soldering iron that you are comfortable with you can use that. Being new you do not need an advanced soldering iron but you do want one that will last you for this project. Also, it can help for all the future ones. That being said, find a simple iron that will allow you to perform these tasks without issue. In addition, it would be a benefit to pick up a pair of ESD tweezers. Now let's take a look at some simple steps.
If you're thinking that is too easy, well, it is! Removing an SMD chip from a board is not meant to be a difficult task unless you have the wrong tools.
You can see this process demonstrated in our video here.
