For the Record |
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"It is hard for one to believe that there is room for further reduction in size and weight from what we are accustomed to today." So wrote Radio & TV News magazine editor William Stocklin in 1958. It was a decade after invention of the transistor (1948), and the first integrated circuit had not yet been developed (Robert Noyce, 1959), but even so it seems fairly short-sighted for a major electronics magazine editor. While being amazed at the shirt-pocket-size transistorized radio and hearing aid, he still found hope for the future of miniaturization of vacuum tubes, such as diodes recently released by General Electric that would "fit into the shell of a standard type of transistor." Sure, it is easy in hindsight to pick on someone's contemporaneous view of an emerging industry, but to not imagine something more compact than a discrete semiconductor and miniaturized passive components seems a bit lame. Hugo Gernsback, founder and original editor Radio-Craft magazine, was predicting things beyond the vacuum tube back in the early part of the century, before any semiconductor elements had been developed even in the laboratory. For the Record - How Small Can They Get?
Everyone in the electronics industry should be familiar with the terms "module" and "miniaturization." It all started ten years ago with Bell Telephone Laboratories' announcement of the transistor but it wasn't until 1953 that Raytheon took the bull by the horns and made the big push with transistors in the hearing aid industry. The effect was instantaneous. The trend spread rapidly to other portions of the electronics industry and as a result the size, weight, and power consumption of equipment was reduced tremendously. Portable radios as we know them today are down to vest-pocket size without any sacrifice of battery life as compared to pre-war days. As a matter of fact, battery life has even been substantially extended with today's transistor sets. This is the background, but it is far from being good enough today. The words "micro-module" and "micro-miniaturization" are terms that the industry will be thinking about in the future. It is hard for one to believe that there is room for further reduction in size and weight from what we are accustomed to today. On the other hand, we have just seen a diode vacuum tube manufactured by G-E that would fit into the shell of a standard type of transistor. Also they have a triode tube that is no more than 3/8 inch in height and 1/4 inch in diameter. This is just a very small part of micro-miniaturization. The entire program is not just a novelty. After many months of theorizing, experimental design, and manufacturing jointly with American industry, the Army Signal Corps recently placed the first of several extensive development contracts with RCA for five million dollars. The day of the single-function component is passing. The key to the future program is the fabrication of extremely small devices known as micro-modules. These are sub-assemblies made up of any number of individual wafers, each wafer measuring 0.3 inch square and 0.01 inch thick. Each module provides a specific circuit function and in a radio set it could be an entire stage. Each could, as an example, consist of a diode, coil, transistor, and a number of resistors and capacitors. This entire program is, of course, directed to the military and was triggered by the urgent need for extremely small size, bulk, and weight of equipment for the Army Signal Corps and certainly for the satellite instrumentation program. It will not stop there. It will certainly run the gamut of all types of electronic data processing equipment and communications equipment and there is no limit in the general field of industrial electronics and aviation. It will be applied to consumer end products such as radios and television sets only if and when the price can be brought low enough to compete with present methods. This is not possible in the immediate future. Actually, there is no specific need for miniaturization in these cases as the sizes of these units are much more dependent on speaker and picture tube dimensions, but there is no reason why the picture tube and speaker could not be separated from the rest of the circuitry. A whole new concept of manufacture, supply, repair, and maintenance will develop with the widespread acceptance of micro-modular construction. There will be a substantial increase in the dependability of electronic equipment since micro-modules are extremely rugged and not affected by shock and vibration. The use of micro-modules will mean greatly simplified servicing and maintenance. An entire module assembly of perhaps 30 to 40 electronic components can be replaced easily without dissipating time and skilled manpower in separately testing individual elements of a stage. If trouble develops, an entire module is removed and replaced. The supply and replacement problem is reduced since one micro-module will replace many individual components now required to be stocked for replacement purposes. This is the future and it will affect everyone in the electronic industry from designer, through the distribution channels, and finally to the service technician who is depended upon to keep the equipment functioning. To those who are in the radio and television field, it may be premature to take immediate action but to those who are in any other branch of the electronic industry, a thought to the future will help present-day planning.
Posted July 21, 2020 |
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By W. Stocklin, Editor