Let’s get small(er)


small(er) Reducing electronic product size


Let’s get Joe Fjelstad T


he title of “wild and crazy” Steve Martin’s top selling comedy album could not be resisted in titling this


month’s column because it captures so well one of the most important objectives and endeavors of the electronics industry: making things small.


In fact, “Reduce


the size” has been part of the mantra of electronic product developers since the earliest days of the industry. Smaller is better, and there are significant benefits that come from making electronic products smaller, especially in an increasingly mobile world. However, some of the benefits are transcendent, and the benefit of making an electronic assembly smaller even though it is not really required by the basic product design is worth exploring. One benefit of size reduction is reduced


material consumption. Tis is a very “green” objective that should be remembered. Designers of some products have lots of room to work with, and it seems that, just as “nature abhors a vacuum,” so also is the case that


some designers abhor unused


space and want to fill it. Given a growing world population and limited resources, less materials use should be an objective of any future design of any type. Another related


benefit is weight Image: Digi-Key


There are other unseen, or at least not too obvious, benefits of reducing size.


74 – Global SMT & Packaging – February 2011


reduction, which has many benefits of its own. Sure we all like having featherweight products to lighten our load, but would you believe energy reduction is also a benefit? Products get shipped around the world, oſten by plane, and every product takes its own individual share whether by air, land or sea. Weight sensitivity is something long known to military aerospace electronics


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