LEDs are awesome. There’s no denying that. Lots of LEDs can only ever mean more awesome things.
After finding some ultra small RGB LEDs (1x1mm) I knew I had to do a project with them. The idea was to make a tiny RGB matrix. I used the IS31FL3733 which is mounted to the back of the PCB and it drives the full 8×8 matrix. That’s a total of 192 LED dies and the board is a mere 16x16mm. This proved to be a fun little routing challenge and it was all squeezed into 4 layers.
The fun only continued when hand assembling too. Using solder stencils makes things a lot easier but with such small temperature sensitive devices and double sided load it forces you to brush up on your assembly skills again.
Fred Temperton 