Glue-mount components: watch out in your BOM

Glue mount components in your BOM? Watch out!

Sometimes you come across them: MLCC's or other passives with terminals designed for mounting with conductive adhesive instead of standard reflow or Vapor Phase soldering.

On paper it seems like a minor detail. In production it's a completely different process. * Conductive adhesive dispensing * Extra process step * Different rework options * Not every EMS provider supports it

For series production, glue-mount can make sense with specific reliability requirements (vibration, thermal stress, special substrates).

But in prototyping?

Often it means: * Extra process complexity * Longer lead time * Less flexibility during iterations

ProtoPCBA's are all about learning and speed.

You usually want to stick with standard SMT processes — unless there's a very deliberate reason not to.

So always check: * Is this component really intended for glue-mount? * Or is a standard MLCC the better choice?

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