Talking about ATMega328 packages

Package of ATMega328P chip

ATmega328/ATmega328P chip become popular together with Arduino. This chip comes with different packages. Today we are going to intrude a little bit more on the package of the chip. As the one being founding on Arduino Uno, the first one most people may encounter is the DIP package. Also , if you play around with Arduino nano and Arduino pro mini, you might see the QFT package being mounted on the board . Besides the DIP and QFP package, there are actually also QFN/MLF package.

Difference between DIP/QFP/QFN chip

Depend on the purpose and the target circuit board size, we can choose different package for our future project. But what are the difference between these packages? The major difference between package is the size and pin arrangement.

Dual in-line package(DIP, DIL)

As the one being found on the Arduino Uno board, the DIP package shaped like a  “cockroach” with two parallel rows(legs) of electrical connecting pins being laid on each sides.  The advantage of DIP package is that it can be through-hole mounted to a printed circuit board or bring insert into a pre-soldered socket. The socket insertion design comes with the advantage of easy replacement. However, The “legs” of DIP package largely restrict the number of connected pins  being extend from the chip, which is not suitable for complex chip.

Quad flat package(QFP)

As the one being found on Arduino nano/Pro mini, QFP package comes with a surface-mounted package. It generally have narrow distance between leads. Compare to the DIP package, the lead of QFP package can be extend from four sided of the chip. The short pitch distance (generally between 0.4 to 1.0 mm) can accommodate more pins. However, when the pitch distance being reduce, the alignment and soldering process become more challenging, especially for maker and hobbyist like us :-D

Quad-flat no leads(QFN), Dual-flat no-leads(DFN) package

QFN and DFN package utilize the flat no-leads design. Which means there’s no more “legs” coming out from the chip. Because the QFN package has no more leads, the chip has less problem of being short to other components on the board. In other words, when the chip and components can be put closer, more electric components can be laid on the same PCB board size. The QFN/DFN package generally has a thermally conductive pad at the bottom of the chip, helping to improve the heat transfer of the IC to the PCB board. Besides the advantage of the size, QFN/DFN chip can also reduce the lead inductance. However, the QFN/DFN chip is more challenging to be solder by hand, especially for maker, hobbyist |o|.

Difference between the DIP package and QFP/QFN package)

The DIP package has only 8 channels of A/D converter. The QFN/QFN chip comes with 10 channels.

Difference between ATMega328 and ATMega328p

The p means “picoPower”, the ATMega328p chip consume less power, which is more energy efficient.

Conclusion

As your project growth more and more advance,  you might want to shrink your circuit design into smaller size. Choose DIP package in the beginning maker the chip replacement because a easy task. When you started to consider shrinking your project, consider the QFP or QFN/DFN package. I just want to share with you that there’s some other alternative package that you can adapt to your future project. Happy making :-D