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Article: 'Home grown' circuits.(CircuitsUnusual)
- Article from:
- CircuiTree
- Article date:
- September 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How do we make an electronic circuit? The answer has changed quite a few times in our century-old circuitry industry. The first circuits weren't even printed; they were made by cutting strips of metal and creating the pattern by gluing pieces to a dielectric. Later on, circuits were formed by printing metal-filled conductive pastes that were thermally hardened and had to be quickly plated up before the conductive ink oxidized. Still later, we borrowed from the printing plate fabricators and adopted subtractive etching, a process that is still the mainstay, but giving ground to additive processes. Semi-additive methods are gaining, especially in the flexible circuit arena ...