Moisture Sensitive SMD Components, How Much Should I Worry?

[The Doktor]

In some of my projects, I come across components which come in a sealed bag with a warning that the component needs to be baked for a certain time and temperature if the package is more than a certain age, or if it has been open for more than a certain number of days at a specified humidity. The exact numbers seem to vary based on the component.

My question is, just how serious do I have to take this? The main thing I see this on is SMD LEDs, but occasionally also on a larger chip. If the package has been opened for a year or two, what are the chances of me popcorning the device if I just go ahead and try to solder it with the hot air gun? I'm asking just roughly, is it a slight possibility, fairly likely, were almost a guaranteed failure?


Thanks
Ed

[ataradov]

try to solder it with the hot air gun?

None at all.

Those MSL levels only really matter if you are making millions of devices and even 0.1% failure rate is a huge deal.

For manual soldering with a hot air gun, you are so far out of the controlled conditions territory that it does not matter.