Surface Mount Technology (SMT) and microwave electronics are synonymous. The need for low parasitic packaging long ago forced component manufacturers to adopt SMT packaging techniques. Since the mid-1990s the commercial success of cellular telephone and wireless data services have resulted in substantial investment into package development for smaller size and lower cost in addition to higher performance. The result is that there are now a huge number of very interesting parts available to hobbyists that have one fatal flaw - they cannot be soldered to a printed circuit board using a soldering iron. This one gotcha has prevented many hams from experimenting with microwave circuits capable of all kinds of fun.
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