Use of SMT or surface mounted technology results in much smaller electronic assemblies. It also allows fully automated production..
However I have found the use of SMT a headache when I have wanted to quickly prototype a circuit. Most of the prototyping options available are for through hole components. There are adaptor boards that will allow an engineer to try out a SMT integrated circuit but they are limited in scope.
The Custard Pi 8 solves this problem by providing a number of pads for SMT devices and bringing them out to plated through holes so that the engineer can wire to these easily. This 80mm x 72mm PCB provides the following:
* 160 point through hole prototyping area with 4 power rails whcih can take upto a 20 pin DIP IC
* 2 x 13 way connector that can be sued to link upto the Raspberry Pi GPIO if required
* Breakout pads for SMT IC that can take a narrow body (0.15 inch) or wide body (0.3 inch) with up to 16 pins
* Breakout pads for SMT IC that can take narrow body (0.15 inch) with upto 16 pins and wide body (0.3 inch) with upto 20 pins
* Breakout pads for 7 x 1206, 8 x 0603 and 9 x 0805 devices
* Pads for 4 SOT-23 devices
* Pads for 1 SOT 223 and 1 DPAK (TO252) device
Available from SF innovations here
Here is a link to a blog post on using the Custard Pi 8 for a student project - building an electronic dice run from the Raspberry Pi GPIO and using Python programming. The project makes use of 'through-hole' and surface mounted devices.