Huh?
I’ve had tens of thousands of 0603 LEDs soldered with Lead-free solder over the years, and never had a solder-related failure (other than the inevitable mis-aligned part).
I do not think PCBWAY will not charge extra cost if there is via-in-pad. When you submit order, the price will change after they confirm in the system.
I am surprised 0201 LEDs are even a thing.
I hope we even get ones which are 5x smaller. I once thought of making one of these, but it cannot be done as of now. Not in H0 gauge that is.
The smallest OLED display I found is 2x too big
I am suprised that the pads for the non-handsolder parts are still so large 
Hand-solder vs ‘normal’:
For real, I know not that much about SMT assembly.(I only know that I JLCPCB sends me functional boards) imagine if this 3D model corresponds 101 with the actual LED which I may or may not buy. Can the pads be smaller than this? Or will that give that some kind of problems during assembly? 
I thought of making my own footprint for this project. On the other hand, as they are now they already fit. So strictly I don’t have to. I can just manually pop da vias 
Regards 
Bas
For parts this small it’s better to choose a certain part and create the footprint according to the datasheet. The smaller the part, the larger the relative dimensional differences become when absolute dimensions change.
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If I remember correctly there are some density levels in the IPC-7351 that KiCad try to adhere, for an exlanation look here:
https://www.protoexpress.com/blog/features-of-ipc-7351-standards-to-design-pcb-component-footprint/
However the footprints of KiCad are not designed for the smallest/densest level, as such, you probably can get away with making your footprint smaller.
As an example from Lite-On . . .
Component and connections size
recommended pad layout
but as you said, if it fits already you are good to go.
As can be seen from the example above, you can save 0.5 mm in the footprint length by following a datasheet. The footprint goes totally under the part which is OK in automated assembly, and the pad outside the part boundaries is hardly useful when you can’t assemble this with an iron. You could fit another via in that saved space.
EDIT: on the other hand, if the footprints of 0402 LED can be optimized in the same way and you could already fit the current 0201 footprints in the design, it could be possible to use 0402 instead. I don’t know if it gives any benefits, though.
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Found another minor inconvenience. Dem white ones are out of stock. I believe that since not all too long ago it is possible to supply JLCPCB with your own parts
Would a hot plate be something for this? I was considering to buy a mhp30. Just have to manually place 0201…
Regards,
Bas
<So unavoidably using ancient units for a moment, that’s 0.36 inch tall digits. That’s a standard 7 segment LED size if you don’t mind that the segments are not composed of dots. Is that heresy for those hobbyists?>
He could cover the standard display with a thin metal / plastic cover with holes in…
Sounds like a good cover-up. 
Light pipes made with monofilament?
Paul, the biggest problem with those signals is that they have a backside. And that backside has to look okay as well. Otherwise those nail counters won’t buy 'em. So yeah, I may fit the smallest 7 segment which would look perfectly fine on the front side, but the backside would become to bulky.
Bas
I’ve been following this thread creating a 1-mm raster LED display with interest (due to a different dormant project).
Until now, I didn’t realize that 0201 LEDs even exist. 0402, yes.
Scanning the interwebs, I found four suppliers for 0201 LEDs:
Inolux, Kingbright, LiteON and Lumex. There may be more, please respond if you know any.
The KiCAD problem is, that all four suppliers use four different (and incompatible) footprints. The standard “LED_0201_0603Metric” footprint is useless, no such device exists.
Doing a PCB layout is perfectly possible with all four, no issue there.
So which one to choose? Which footprint will win in the end?
Why to discuss footprints if you can make one? Footprint for a resistor is a the easiest thing you can do. You could also make a footprint of a resistor with a via/that pad inside of it, then a symbol with 3 pins to be able to use that 3rd connection for anything.
I already made all four. That wasn’t the issue. But keep playing with your resistors.
What is is the issue?
Anxiety of vendor / supplier lock-in, perhaps?
Just my guess; I don’t know…
If the issue is hand soldering 0201 SMD components, don’t forget that using either a hot air soldering station, or a hotplate as has been mentioned, allows automatic alignment of parts due to surface tension of molten solder. Doesn’t work with an iron because you can’t get both pads at the same temperature simultaneously.
To get that to work properly you need to buy a mask for applying the solder paste so that you have the same amount of paste on each pad. I believe JLCPCB will supply a paste mask as part of their PCB fabrication service? If not, others will.
In fact, those masks are made of thin metal aren’t they? If so they could be suitable for the light mask put in front of a 7segment LED, also as discussed earlier. Just design a dummy PCB with round solder pads where you want the model 5x7 light dots to be and order the paste mask, throw away the PCB, put the mask in front of the 7segment LED.
Jan
Perhaps it is possible to make a modified iron tip where it splits in 2 parts that you can touch each side of the resistor at the same time. But I think the hotplate would be easier due to the amount of the parts.
Forget about hot air and such a small 0201 component. I will fly away so fast.
Hot plate might be possible. But I would never try to solder 0201 myself.
Just to manipulate the part to put them on the pcb will be a real nightmare.
For such small thing only automated placement seems feasible. JLCPB should do it, but you already have to pay for the standard PCBA instead of the economic one.
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