Component placement

Component placement is an electronics manufacturing process that places electrical components precisely on printed circuit boards (PCBs) to create electrical interconnections between functional components and the interconnecting circuitry in the PCBs (leads-pads). The component leads must be accurately immersed in the solder paste previously deposited on the PCB pads. The next step after component placement is soldering. There are three categories of components: active, passive and connecting. Active components, such as diodes, transistors, integrated circuits and optoelectronic devices, provide gain or directionality to electrical signals add digital processing and storage. Passive components, such as resistors and capacitors, are used to electronically "tune" a device for optimum performance. Connectors are used to provide electrical communication between electronic devices.