New Approaches to Low Cost Electronic Circuit Packages

The electronics industry has affected the American culture more profoundly than any other industry in our better than two hundred years as a nation. Television has significantly impacted our nation\´s habits for the past thirty to forty years. The method employed in design and manufacture of these consumer electronic products has evolved through three phases. Initially, consumer electronic circuits employed vacuum tubes as the major building block. Associated with the tube was a quick disconnect or tube socket and related terminal strip used as an interconnect and mounting system for passive components associated with the tube socket. These circuits were normally hand wired and hand soldered, although there were some attempts to automate the assembly operation thru the use of wire wrap terminals or solder cups. It was not until semiconductor devices came into wide usage and the printed circuit board replaced the terminal strip and tube socket, the door opened for automation. Approximately 1960, automatic assembly of printed circuit boards was employed by some of the larger electronic manufacturers. Most passive components employed in these circuits were substantially unchanged from the earlier vacuum tube circuits. Additionally, components could only be mounted on one side of the circuit board. The third phase is "surface mount" assembly whereby both sides of the printed circuit board is utilized. Cost and quality benefits along with accompanying size reduction will cause "surface mount" assembly systems to become the dominant circuit packaging method employed in consumer electronic packages as we move into the 1980\´s.