Doing more with less is the mantra of our era. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the drive towards miniaturization in the next generation of electronic components and systems.
The push for smaller parts is coming both from the need for smaller assemblies that can be used in specific applications as well as the need to reduce material costs by making smaller parts that can work as well as larger parts. One key area where this trend is playing out is with reed sensors and planar transformers, where new manufacturing techniques are pushing the limits of smaller, faster, and cheaper.The drive toward smaller and lighter componentsWithout question, aerospace and space exploration was the initial driver towards miniaturization – electronic components in rockets and controls had to be smaller and lighter as they left our atmosphere.The advent of the semiconductor industry and the move towards integrated circuits was the next driver, and today thousands of transistors exist on a single micron of space. As we started placing semiconductors on printed circuit boards PCBs, passive components were just too large to fit, looming up like skyscrapers. It became obvious that all passive components, including reed switches, reed sensors, reed relays, transformers, resistors, capacitors, and inductors, also had to be reduced in size.Next in line was the medical industry, which developed more and more ‘invasive’ products for placement inside the body. These required ultra-reliable, very small components that use minimal power so the products don’t have to be removed frequently for battery replacement. Many medical applications may have been handicapped because the device designs were large. For instance, the typical heart pacemaker/defibrillator design of yesteryear was 4-inches by 4-inches by 2-inches, which did not easily fit in the chest, protruding out with a large and unsightly lump. The drive for smaller components, including reed switches, batteries, and microprocessors, gave us a pacemaker that fit reasonably in one’s chest cavity. And this in turn spurred a much wider use of heart pacemakers worldwide.Last, but definitely not least, is the consumer trend towards compact, portable, smarter devices that work faster and have loads of added features, for which we want to pay less and less. Clearly the ability to cut back in size has made a dramatic and positive contribution to our lives.
