The TO-263 (D²Pak) surface-mount package with a large exposed tab allows the heat to flow into the PCB copper plane, making it a fit for automated assembly lines where a through-hole TO-220 would add a manual soldering step.
The TO-263-3 (D²Pak) surface-mount package (supplier device package PG-TO263-3-2) has two leads plus the drain tab. The surface-mount format is compatible with reflow soldering and avoids the through-hole wave-solder step, which saves a process operation in volume assembly.
