Printed Circuits and Microelectronics

In the two decades since the concept of ceramic based "printed circuits" was first suggested for an Army Ordnance application, substantial changes have taken place in the techniques of electronic circuit construction in the United States. Today, such ceramic circuits, in simple and complex networks, are complemented by printed wiring assemblies in several variations. Both technologies, now well established and in mass use on production lines, represent the current plateaus in miniature circuit construction for general commercial and military usage. Other construction philosophies and technologies are now shaping in the country's industrial and military laboratories, all aimed at new orders of size reduction of electronic equipments. In the several microelectronic techniques under development, the elemental electronic part appears destined to lose its logistic identity completely, and yield its classical position as a building block to black boxes called "circuit functions." The paper provides a summary review of the evolution of current ceramic printed circuits and printed wiring practices and, in the light of today's microelectronic activities, frames the trend in equipment design in the years ahead.