About SMT and DIP

What are SMT and DIP?

SMT(Surface Mount Technology) is a circuit assembly technology that installs surface mounted components on the surface of a circuit board or other board substrate, and assembles them by soldering or immersion welding.

DIP (Dual In-line Package), which refers to devices packaged in a plug-in form, with a pin count generally not exceeding 100. The commonly mentioned "DIP soldering" or "DIP post soldering" refers to the soldering of DIP packaged devices after SMT.

What are the differences between SMT and DIP?

Different process principles

SMT is an electronic manufacturing method based on surface mount technology. It uses a surface mount machine to mount electronic components onto the surface of a printed circuit board, and then connects the components to the circuit board through soldering technology. This process can achieve high-speed automated production, high production efficiency, and strong adaptability.

DIP is an electronic manufacturing method based on pin type components. It uses a plug-in machine to insert pin type components into the sockets of a printed circuit board, and then connects the components to the circuit board through wave soldering or manual soldering. This process is relatively backward, with low production efficiency but lower cost.

Different applicable components

SMT is suitable for small and miniaturized electronic components, such as surface mount resistors, surface mount capacitors, surface mount inductors, SOP, QFP, etc. These components are small in size and light in weight, allowing for high-density mounting, thereby reducing the area and weight of the circuit board and improving product performance and reliability.

DIP is suitable for large, traditional electronic components such as pin resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc. These components have a large volume and need to be connected to the circuit board through sockets, so high-density mounting cannot be achieved. In addition, DIP plugin processing requires the use of wave soldering or manual soldering, which is relatively complex and prone to welding quality issues.

Production efficiency varies

SMT uses automated equipment for PCB assembly production, which can achieve high-speed mounting and soldering, with high production efficiency. A surface mount machine can mount hundreds to thousands of components per hour, greatly improving production efficiency. In addition, SMT surface mount processing can also achieve multi variety and small batch production, with strong adaptability.

DIP is carried out using plugin machines for PCB assembly production, resulting in relatively low production efficiency. A plugin machine can only insert dozens to hundreds of components per hour, which cannot meet the needs of large-scale production. In addition, DIP plug-in processing requires manual welding operations, which are relatively complex and prone to welding quality issues.

Different costs

SMT requires the use of automated equipment and precision welding technology, with significant equipment investment and high production costs. However, due to high production efficiency and reliable product performance, unit costs can be reduced in large-scale production.

The equipment investment for DIP is relatively small, and the production cost is low. However, due to low production efficiency and unstable product performance, the cost is relatively high in small-scale production. In addition, DIP plugin processing requires manual welding operations, which incurs significant labor costs.

Different quality controls

SMT uses automated equipment and advanced detection technology for quality control during circuit board assembly process, which can achieve full process monitoring and automatic detection, with high quality stability. In addition, SMT can also achieve traceability management, facilitating the tracking and handling of quality issues for PCB assembly. 

DIP requires manual quality inspection and control, which can easily lead to human errors and misjudgments. In addition, the welding quality of DIP plug-in processing is greatly affected by manual operation, which can easily lead to welding quality problems. Therefore, the quality stability of DIP plugin processing is relatively low.