What is SMT?

SMT stands for Surface Mount Technology. It is a method to mount electrical components directly onto the surface of printed circuit board (PCB).  Comparing with the traditional through-hole technology, SMT can place more components within a given area and is easier to automate the manufacturing procedure, and hence become the mainstream technology in industry.

Components that can be mounted in this manner is called surface-mount device (SMD). They are usually smaller than their through-hole version, because they have very short or even none leads, also their package can be even smaller because they are suppose to be assembled by pick and place machine, which is more accurate than human’s hands.