Surface-Mount Device

What Does Surface-Mount Device Mean?

A surface-mount device (SMD) is an electronic device whose components are placed or mounted onto the surface of the printed circuit board (PCB). This method of manufacturing electronic circuit boards is based on the surface-mount technology (SMT), which has largely replaced the through-hole technology (THT) especially in devices that need to be small or flat. Compared to the latter, SMT allows both sides of a PCB to be used when required.

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Techopedia Explains Surface-Mount Device

The most common example of an SMD is the smart phone. It has components that need to be packed very tightly in a very slim case, so it is not feasible to use THT components. The latter also take up space at the bottom of or behind the PCB since that is where they are soldered, resulting in pointy tips where the solder meets the leads. SMT components can be smaller than THT components since they can have either smaller leads or no leads at all, which makes it easier to shrink the components down.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…