Soldering a high-density LED array using DIY reflow oven

First of all, please watch the video below to find out how everything was done on my work bench.

A recent project requires soldering 600+ tiny LEDs on long narrow circuit boards. The LED, Philips Rebel Z ES, is as small as 1.6mm x 2mm, and is placed 2.5mm apart from each other. The leads of those LEDs are only on the bottom of the component, so apparently hand soldering is not possible.

Since I’ve built a DIY reflow oven before, I decided to push the boundary a littler further and give it a try. I’ve done many project using this DIY oven, but components’ density at this level is something I’ve never tried before. Carefully starting this project by designing proper circuit, I also tuned and laser cut the stencil, and finally got into this reflow process. Surprisingly, all those pieces worked together very well and got this job done!