A wafer or a portion of a wafer including capped chips such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) chips is provided with terminals by applying a terminal-bearing element such as a dielectric element with terminals and leads thereon, or a lead frame, so that the terminal-bearing element covers the caps, and the leads are aligned with channels or other depressions between the caps. The leads are connected to contacts on the wafer, and the wafer is severed to form individual units, each including terminals supported by the cap and connected to the contacts by the leads. The resulting units can be handled and processed in the same manner as ordinary chips or chip assemblies.