What is SMT Material Packaging?

SMT Material Packaging is the way electric components being packaged together, so that it is easier to store and to transport.

What are the Types of SMT Material Packaging?

1. Tape and Reel

It consists of carrier tape, cover tape, and reel. Electric components are first placed in each cavity in the carrier tape, then sealed with the cover tape, and later rolled on the reel.

(1) Paper Carrier Tape

Pre-punched paper carrier tapes are a low-cost packaging solution, which are commonly used to pack the small chips of rectangular outline, such as chip resistors, chip capacitors, cylinder diodes, and so on.

(2) Plastic Carrier Tape

Embossed plastic carrier tapes are commonly used to pack the slightly larger electric components than the paper tape, including components of rectangular outline, cylindrical outline, LCC, and etc.

(3) Self-Adhesive Carrier Tape

Self-adhesive plastic carrier tapes are commonly used to pack the relatively larger electric components, such as larger chips, SOP, delay lines, film chip resistor networks, and so on.

2. Tray (Waffle)

It is a tray of one or more layers, where electric components are placed in each cavity on the tray.

Trays are the most popular packaging solution for larger electric components with leads that are easily damaged during the transportation, such as QFP, TSOP, and other IC components, while trays provide isolated storage cavity for each component.

3. Stick (Tube)

The shape of the cross-section of the cavity in the stick is the outline of the electric component that stick contains.

Sticks are commonly adopted to pack small amounts of electric components with various types, among which the sticks with the rectangular cavity are used to pack rectangular components such as PLCC, and the sticks with the irregular cavity are used to pack the components of corresponding outline.

How to Choose Between Different Types of SMT Material Packaging?

Aside from the common application of different types of packaging solutions listed above, different pick and place machines can have different requirements sometimes.

For example, all three types of packaging solution listed above can be used for ASM Siplace X-Series component supply, while only tape and reel can be used for Panasonic NPM-D3A.