Trying 0201

I decided to take the step to move some of my PCB designs to using 0201 components.

This is basically accepting that I do not even try to solder these things now. A few years ago I started milling boards and hand soldering 0805, and then 0603. I can just manage 0402 if I am very careful. But no way I could do 0201s. These days I design boards and have them made and assembled and shipped. 

It seems JLCPCB can do 0201, so why not?

What's an 0201

Components have various size designations, sizes liked 0805, 0603, 0402, 0201, 01005 are used for standard chip type resistors and capacitors. An 0402 is 0.04" by 0.02" which is 1mm by 0.5mm. An 0201 is 0.6mm by 0.3mm which is tiny.

This picture gives you an idea - a ball point pen shown for stale (a banana would not fit), and the diagonal square things (LEDs) are 1mm by 1mm. You can see ten 0201 resistors and an 0201 capacitor.

So yes, grains of sand. The 01005 things (not doing those yet) are like dust, and there are some that are smaller!

Pros and cons

With 0402 it is possible to run a track under it, i.e. between the two pads, but with 0201, not so much. That said, I rarely ever do a track under an 0402 anyway. Sometimes larger components.

Obviously some components have to be bigger, and you end up with this crazy mix for capacitors - but that has always been the case - larger caps, higher voltages, mean physically bigger caps. But resistors are less of a problem usually - yes sometimes you need bigger ones, but mostly they can be 0201s.

The main advantage is the space saving - my PCBs are often nice and small, so this is handy.

Now, I know my colleagues doing PCB design also need 0201 caps for decoupling as they need to be physically small and close to components. Thankfully I am not doing stuff that high speed with my ESP32 modules, well, yet.

So far they are working - in that JLC seem more than capable of placing 0201.

Footprint

KiCAD has standard footprints, but interestingly I found this fun article, so trying their suggestions. Some test boards to make sure no production issues - surprisingly JLC has not specific recommendations.