Surface mount drive components?

[ak_47_boy]

For an average class-D amp operating at say 200khz what kind of performance advantage will SMT give over the traditional threw hole style.

I know it will cost far less too.

[MartyM]

I'm not really aware of "performance" advantages of SMT components, be they Class D amplifier ICs, passive components, or others.

But I can tell you this...when I design a PCB, SMT allows for:

1. Smaller PCB layout, possible up to 25-30% smaller for a compact board on that layer
2. Reduced copper traces (length & width)
3. Allows population of parts on both top and bottom of the board for an even more compact board! (Assuming constraints allow this)
4. Can eliminated drilling holes and thru-hole plating overhead

In some cases the SMT parts have much shorter leads, so less characteristic inductance and/or capacitance.

I'm not convinced of your statement that SMT ICs are significantly less expensive, just as a beginning design engineer.

Oh well, just my $.02!

[ak_47_boy]

IC's are not really less expensive but transistors and especially passive components are substantially cheaper. Plus no holes to drill in the pcb. Not that the extra $2 matters to a diyer.

I just thought a few ns could be cut off rise and fall time (thus dead time) by using surface mount components. I guess its not really worth the trouble.

[luka]

Hi

Great thing about SMT is you can put all very close together, this means interference from any noise will be smaller. And like it was said you will save space on board and you don't have to drill as many holes... I like to use both types, SMT and threw hole components, resistors and caps really don't need to be threw hole, but with ICs it is more easy to make board and solder it if you have them threw hole