Since the AMG8831 comes in a package similar to DFN (Dual Flat No-leads) packages, a breakout board was necessary. An additional requirement for the breakout board was that it would be usable in a prototype of the module, requiring a small footprint.

The suggested minimal surrounding circuit for the AMG88xx (see Figure above) was used to design a circuit board with a footprint of 13mm x 14.4mm and a row of 100mil spaced pads for the I²C and voltage supply pins for easy prototyping. Since no more than one of the sensors will be used, the configurable I²C device address was set to 1101000 via the AD_SELECT pin.

Eagle was used to design a breakout board and a bunch of them were ordered at DirtyPCB, because I'm cheap.

(Download the eagle files here)

Since the AMG88xx data sheet recommends reflow soldering, I used a reflow oven for the first time in my life and found out the thermocoupler was broken, luckily without the AMG88xx attached.

This turned out a bit too crispy.

Using a different reflow oven, it worked. In the end the AMG88xx was attached with hand soldering (using the instructions in the data sheet) as the reflow oven could not manage to comply with the strict reflow profile from the data sheet.

In the end, everything worked out and I ended up with this small-footprint breadboard-compatible breakout board.