How to use implies in a sentence?

I want to say that the chip carrier is like the cover of the chip and that it also provides "surface mount", where surface mount is a technical term that means that the chip carrier facilitates the mounting of the chip on the surface of boards.

My sentence:

Chip carrier is a technology package that is used in integrated circuits as a surface mount which implies that it is placed on boards.

I am not sure whether the word implies is the most appropriate word to express that I am going to say the definition of the "surface mount", I am also not sure about structure of the overall sentence.

Solution 1:

Since you want to define the term "surface mount" it would be better to say

... as a surface mount, which means that it is placed on boards.

This is because it's not clear to which surface the chip carrier is mounted (at least, to people who are not familiar with this technology). When something is implied, you don't need to elaborate: it's clear to the listener what that something is.

If the technology was called a "board mount," for example, it would be very clear that it is mounted on boards, so no elaboration would be necessary.

Solution 2:

Surface mounting certainly does imply that the chips are placed "on" PCBs, but by using the word "imply" it focuses my attention BACK to the fact that it's "ON the surface", which may be directing away from the subject of the sentence, the chip carrier.

I think there are chip carriers that are not surface mount (a socket mount package is still a chip carrier, yes?). If you are trying to explain that surface mount technology is being facilitated by modern chip carriers that have J-leads or leadless packages, you may need to move some things around.

My answer is that you would only want to use "imply" in your explanation if you are trying to focus the reader's attention on an important point. But with a term like "surface mount", the reader can infer that the chip is on the board.