Surface Mount IC to DIP protoboard adapters for mbed projects

27 Aug 2010 . Edited: 02 Sep 2010

Many new devices and sensors are only available in surface mount IC packages and not in a DIP package that would plug directly into a protoboard. For projects using low-pin count surface mount devices, small low-cost adapter boards are available with pins that plug into a standard .1 inch protoboard. Adapters such as the one seen below, are available for many of the more common surface mount package styles many places such as www.sparkfun.com, but an even wider assortment can be found at www.proto-advantage.com, www.winslowadaptics.com, , www.schmartboard.com and  www.beldynsys.com. The surface mount device must be carefully soldered to the adapter board. Here is one we used recently, it has an Analog Devices 16-bit A/D SMT chip with an SPI interface soldered on it and the DIP pins sticking out on the back side allow it to plug directly into a student protoboard.