Improvements Made in Electronic Parts During the Past Ten Years

Since other presentations of this conference will cover the different electronic parts areas, this paper is limited to the improvements made in the general areas of resistors, transmission lines, mechtronics and relays. Changing environments along with the demand for improved performance, smaller size and longer life have been the motivating factors in bringing about electronic part improvements. Briefly these environmental changes are listed in Figure 1. It should be noted that there is a considerable spread in some of these conditions - as for example - temperature. This is because some electronic equipments are subjected to different environments than others and parts fulfilling these requirements may be so vastly different in size, cost and quantity requirements that it would be impracticable, for example, to use a 500°C component for all lower temperature appli- cations.