Should folks building small numbers of circuit boards use surface-mount parts, or should they stick with through-hole components that are so much easier to handle and solder (not to mention see)?

If you are lucky enough to encounter a piece of homebrew electronics from the 1950s, the chances are that under the covers the components will be assembled on solder tags, each component with long ...

Modding today's hardware often means moving or removing tiny surface mount components, and using a standard soldering iron feels about as effective as using a hammer to kill a fly. If buying an ...

For most of us, soldering electronics means soldering on “through hole components,” that are large and easy to handle. However, when machines build components, they use “surface mount components,” ...

The different types of PCB assembly methods like surface mount, through-hole, and mixed assembly. How these PCB assembly processes differ from each other. The performance of a printed circuit board ...

As computers have gotten smaller and less expensive over the years, so have their components. While many of us got our start in the age of through-hole PCBs, this size reduction has led to more and ...

One of the first decisions involved in laying out a printed circuit board (PCB) is choosing the type and style of components to be used. This decision is mainly driven by the PCB’s electrical ...

As the power dissipation and availability of surface mount RF power amplifiers has increased, the need for careful thermal management of the next higher level assembly has become increasingly ...