Dead-bugging means gluing a chip belly-up onto a board or ground plane and soldering wires directly to its upturned leads. It rescues a part whose footprint was wrong, adds a part the design left out, and is a respected way to prototype RF and analog circuits, where building over a solid copper ground plane gives short, clean connections. The result looks like a dead insect on its back, hence the name.
Footprint's mirrored, so dead bug the op-amp on the ground pour and wire it up until rev B arrives.
Also heard as
- dead-bugging
- dead-bug style
Related terms
Footprint
Pattern of copper pads, outline and markings on a board that matches one component package.
Bodge wire
Wire soldered onto an assembled board to fix a design error by joining points the copper failed to connect.
Rework
Removing and replacing parts or fixing joints on an assembled board to correct defects or make changes.