The Rapidly Changing Interconnect: New Technology Drives New Apps. Embedding Components Gives American Manufacturing Another Chance to Shine (Emerging Technologies‪)‬

The electronics landscape is changing in ways unforeseen even a few years ago, and the interconnect, or printed circuit board (to use the old definition), is at the forefront of those changes. The underlying technology is changing in ways that few in the West now understand. With huge cost pressures and the shift of basic electronics manufacturing to Asia, these new manufacturing processes have fundamentally altered the topography in ways that present significant opportunities to designers and systems engineers, managers and marketers. These changes are also significant challenges to the relevance of the manufacturing and technology base in North America and Europe. Consider the iPhone. Every day, new applications that go far beyond the original concept are being introduced. These include: