jbcapacitors blog

Mass produced electronic circuit boards need to be manufactured in a highly mechanized manner. The traditional leaded electronic components do not lend themselves to this approach. Although some mechanisation was possible, component leads need to be pre-formed, and when they were inserted into boards automatically problems were often encountered as wires did not fit properly slowing production rates considerably.

It was reasoned that the wires that had traditionally been used for connections were not actually needed for printed circuit board construction. Rather than having leads placed through holes, the components could be soldered onto pads on the board instead. This also saved the need to drilling as many holes in boards.

As the components were mounted on the surface of the board, rather than having connections that went through holes in the board, the new technology was called surface mount technology or SMT. The idea for SMT was adopted very quickly because it enabled greater levels of mechanisation to be used, and it considerably saved on manufacturing costs.