Reballing LGA-152 NAND Chips

Often, we have to reball LGA-152 NAND chips to swap them from one PCB to another. For example, from a bad circuit board to a donor circuit board.

This is an example reballing a Micron NW657 NAND Chip with 0.40mm Sn63/Pb37 Alloy Solder Balls. I prefer using solder balls over solder paste because it creates less mess however it can be more work if you need to manually place a lot of solder balls.

Often in cases where there is flex damage to the PCB you’ll find pads on the PCB have been ripped off under the NAND chip. If a donor is available reballing and swapping the NAND chips and controller is often more efficient than reading out the NAND memory chip because you chance not getting all the data.