Through-hole technology

Through-hole technology, also spelled "thru-hole", refers to the mounting scheme used for electronic components that involves the use of leads on the components that are inserted into holes (PTH - Plated Through-Hole) drilled in printed circuit boards (PCB) and soldered to pads on the opposite side either by manual assembly by hand placement or by the use of automated insertion mount machines.

Through-hole technology almost completely replaced earlier electronics assembly techniques such as point-to-point construction. From the second generation of computers in the 1950s until surface-mount technology became popular in the late 1980s, every component on a typical PCB was a through-hole component.

While through-hole mounting provides strong mechanical bonds when compared to surface-mount technology techniques, the additional drilling required makes the boards more expensive to produce. They also limit the available routing area for signal traces on layers immediately below the top layer on multilayer boards since the holes must pass through all layers to the opposite side. To that end, through-hole mounting techniques are now usually reserved for bulkier components such as electrolytic capacitors or semiconductors in larger packages such as the TO220 that require the additional mounting strength.

Design engineers often prefer the larger through-hole to surface mount parts when prototyping because they are easier to handle, insert, and solder.

A rule of thumb for creating a through-hole on a PCB is to make the drill diameter 0.019” (0.48mm) larger than the part’s lead. The installation of discrete through-hole parts (e.g. resistor, capacitors, and diodes ), is done by bending the leads 90 degrees in the same direction, inserting part in the board, bending leads located on the back of the board in opposing directions to improve the part's mechanical strength; finally, soldering the leads such that the solder seeps through to both sides of the board.

Installation of radial-leaded parts (e.g. LEDs and electrolytic capacitors) and ICs are done in the same manner except the parts are already formed in a 90° direction.

See also