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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2391.PDF
632 FLIGHT International, 18 October 1962 Aviation Electronics A "FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL" SURVEY MANY companies in Britain are now engaged in research and pilot production of microminiature components and circuits of various types. The time is approaching when the technological revolution which these techniques are introducing will reach the production line. The subject is accordingly reviewed here in relatively non-specialist terminology to indicate its nature and portent. Test equipment, especially the elaborate automatic check out system is also beginning to have an important effect on equipment design and maintenance methods, and a review of British test equipment is presented, starting on page 635. Microminiaturization FOR years the watchword in electronics development was "miniaturize"—i.e., reduce the size and weight of the black boxes required to provide the ever wider variety of radio services needed for airliners and military aircraft. The weight penalty was serious and there were problems in supplying sufficient electrical power and dissipating the heat. The first expedients of reducing the size of individual components, without particularly changing their electrical characteristics or arrangement, allowed quite reasonable size-reductions. In due course the introduction of the transistor produced a revolution in size, power requirements and weight—and the revolution reached the domestic market too, in the form of the pocket-sized broadcast receivers. But when the really interesting reduction in size came about —and it is still going on—the size of the airliners was steadily increasing, until the point was reached where the weight and size of equipment were no longer critical, because they represented a smaller and smaller proportion of the aircraft as a whole. Never theless, miniaturization was still attractive because, equally, it Milliard 15-stage shift register in normal printed circuit and micro miniature form, showing a 40 :1 size reduction. Note that wiring and plugs are now almost larger than the main unit Testing a completed semi-conductor network by Texas Instruments Ltd. The network is the tiny black blob in the centre of the printed circuit pattern What is it? allowed more and more equipment to be installed in smaller and smaller aircraft. The Services too, remained major customers for the small black box, needing it for missile and space work and for mobile equipment. Computers continued to rely on compactness for economy and very-high-speed operation. Miniaturization is a fine catchword. The fingernail-sized circuit is dramatic when compared with the traditional black box. Micro miniaturization sounds even better, but what does it really achieve? What does it mean? When will it come into everyday use? Though useful in the early stages, miniaturization was not always an unqualified improvement. Smaller components would in them selves allow a reduction of overall equipment size; but, when full advantage was taken of the closer packing made possible by smaller components, individual parts became inaccessible for normal fault-tracing and repair. Though the smaller components might produce less heat, closer packaging also meant that the heat sources were more closely concentrated and therefore were just as troublesome as before, if not actually more so. It was the introduc- R.C.A. micro-module wafers on a penny. Notches in the edges are for contact wires by which wafers are stacked into potted modules
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