Even back in the first days of the industrial revolution, when James Watt and others were developing steam engine technology, patents were just a device to keep the little guys out of the running. It was noted that patents held up the development of steam power by two decades or more. And that observation was written a hundred years ago.
Fifteen years ago I wondered if SMD would drive through-hole to extinction.
I've read that the requirement for lead-free solder significant slowed the adoption of surface mount technology, mainly due to high failure rates and dramatically shortened product life. Two years before failure may be acceptable for cheap consumer devices, but not in other areas such as communications, automotive, military and aerospace. Of course, that's just something I read.
Some interesting comments, but I will have to disagree with TH being only driven by the hobbyist market. As I mentioned before, my work is consuming tons of TH components and for a lot of "state of the art" products.
Well, my Cubieboard doesn't have 0.1 inch spacing. I have spent quite a bit of time looking for a solution to wiring into the GPIO but nothing quite right. It is something smaller, and closer. I tried locating ribbon cables and other connectors to adapt, but nothing will do it easily.
Loopy, have you checked out the Cubie BaseBoard? Among several other features, it does bring out all GPIO to 0.1" pitch headers.
>my work is consuming tons of TH components
Reason?
Mixing smt and through hole, extra cost of two soldering process and that TH parts many times don't lend them self to pick&place.
in the electronic industry if you don't try to save cost everywhere and for example say it cost $2+ more and with 50K unit it's 100'000 dollars, if someone waste that money in my company they would be fired the next day.
Short answer: Customer's design requirements and overall cost driven mostly by two factors: burdened shop rates (cost of human labor, equipment depreciation, facilities requirements, etc) and component costs.
SMT = High cost of machines, more expensive labor, sophisticated inspection equipment, etc, etc.
TH = Minimal expense labor, 1 inexpensive machine, very basic visual inspection
Please don't mis-understand my statements in regards to very basic discrete components. It will almost always be cheaper to use an 1/4 Watt SMT 0805 resistor versus a 1/4 Watt TH resistor. On the other extreme, a surface mount DB9 will never have the durability of a good old school TH DB9. (ask any CM doing ITAR or Military product) Saving $2 is not worth the cost of not having a reliable product. In many cases where we use TH that could be changed to SMT, that is the number one factor it is not changed. However, if going to SMT versus TH is only a matter of cost difference, than, yes, that's a no-brainer decision.
Do a provisional patent application, full patents for new ideas and products is 90% of the time just waste of money and time.
My first patent application was non-provisional.
My second application was a provisional, followed by a non-provisonal, for the benifit of an early filing date. As you may know, a provisional will never result in a patent being issued, unless it is followed by a non-provisional. As I stated earlier, you never get your foot in the door of a major corporation without a patent being granted, but if you do manage to get in, it is only because they left the door wide open, and inventors should be very leary about submitting ideas without a patent.
I am not sure just exactly what I am doing just yet, but I do know I am just bursting to show some photos
As to the second question, it it worth patenting something related to that technology? Bruce, how much time and money have you spent on patents, and how much of your income can be directly attributed to that effort?
To me, life is simply too short to be paranoid about people stealing my stuff. If I've got a worthwhile idea, I'll just make it happen and enjoy whatever proceeds come my way until another idea hits me. The less I have to deal with lawyers and government bureaucrats, the better for my health and mental outlook. One can either be like Gollum, hunkering in a dank cave, protecting his Precioussss, or out enjoying the sunshine. It's your choice to make.
Com'on Phil.... This potential patent could have your name on it as co-inventor. I need someone with cam experience (such as ProbCAM-DB) to help design the final product.
Loopy, have you checked out the Cubie BaseBoard? Among several other features, it does bring out all GPIO to 0.1" pitch headers.
Arrgh........... my point is the CubieBoard 1 and 2 require you to purchase the additional Cubie Baseboard to acquire the 0.1" pitch headers... suddenly the same is not so small, and the cheap is not so cheap.
IMHO, buy the CubieBoard 3 and skip #1 and #2. #3 has evolved into something even better than #1 or #2.
++++++++++++++++++++
As far as the continued existence of 'through hole techonology', I suspect that the donut will remain viable far into the future. The ubiquitous maple bar will never replace the dunk-abilty of through-hole device.
====================
On a more serious note, there is nothing wrong with ordering SMT production runs that allow the end user to add modification via through-hole solutions. The cost of the board to the end-user becomes reasonable and the producer just provides traces and holes without having to populate with devices.
A couple of decades ago a friend postulated that the way things were going the world would eventually be run by one 'hairy smoking golf ball' computer.
The hairy referred to the connections needed and the smoking referred to the heat generated.
At that time though the idea that light would be used instead of electron flow was not yet thought of.
Even using through hole stuff is becoming a challenge. I was advised that I should wait until the cataracts in both eyes was bad enough to have surgery on one and wait a bit and have the other one done. Even so I still have the worsening problem of needing both hands to
steady the soldering iron to do work.
Getting old ain't for sissies.
Tim
On the bright side - alzheimers(sp?) will mean I never have to watch reruns and I will always be meeting new people.
Comments
I've read that the requirement for lead-free solder significant slowed the adoption of surface mount technology, mainly due to high failure rates and dramatically shortened product life. Two years before failure may be acceptable for cheap consumer devices, but not in other areas such as communications, automotive, military and aerospace. Of course, that's just something I read.
Loopy, have you checked out the Cubie BaseBoard? Among several other features, it does bring out all GPIO to 0.1" pitch headers.
Reason?
Mixing smt and through hole, extra cost of two soldering process and that TH parts many times don't lend them self to pick&place.
in the electronic industry if you don't try to save cost everywhere and for example say it cost $2+ more and with 50K unit it's 100'000 dollars, if someone waste that money in my company they would be fired the next day.
SMT = High cost of machines, more expensive labor, sophisticated inspection equipment, etc, etc.
TH = Minimal expense labor, 1 inexpensive machine, very basic visual inspection
Please don't mis-understand my statements in regards to very basic discrete components. It will almost always be cheaper to use an 1/4 Watt SMT 0805 resistor versus a 1/4 Watt TH resistor. On the other extreme, a surface mount DB9 will never have the durability of a good old school TH DB9. (ask any CM doing ITAR or Military product) Saving $2 is not worth the cost of not having a reliable product. In many cases where we use TH that could be changed to SMT, that is the number one factor it is not changed. However, if going to SMT versus TH is only a matter of cost difference, than, yes, that's a no-brainer decision.
My first patent application was non-provisional.
My second application was a provisional, followed by a non-provisonal, for the benifit of an early filing date. As you may know, a provisional will never result in a patent being issued, unless it is followed by a non-provisional. As I stated earlier, you never get your foot in the door of a major corporation without a patent being granted, but if you do manage to get in, it is only because they left the door wide open, and inventors should be very leary about submitting ideas without a patent.
I am not sure just exactly what I am doing just yet, but I do know I am just bursting to show some photos
Com'on Phil.... This potential patent could have your name on it as co-inventor. I need someone with cam experience (such as ProbCAM-DB) to help design the final product.
Arrgh........... my point is the CubieBoard 1 and 2 require you to purchase the additional Cubie Baseboard to acquire the 0.1" pitch headers... suddenly the same is not so small, and the cheap is not so cheap.
IMHO, buy the CubieBoard 3 and skip #1 and #2. #3 has evolved into something even better than #1 or #2.
++++++++++++++++++++
As far as the continued existence of 'through hole techonology', I suspect that the donut will remain viable far into the future. The ubiquitous maple bar will never replace the dunk-abilty of through-hole device.
====================
On a more serious note, there is nothing wrong with ordering SMT production runs that allow the end user to add modification via through-hole solutions. The cost of the board to the end-user becomes reasonable and the producer just provides traces and holes without having to populate with devices.
The hairy referred to the connections needed and the smoking referred to the heat generated.
At that time though the idea that light would be used instead of electron flow was not yet thought of.
Even using through hole stuff is becoming a challenge. I was advised that I should wait until the cataracts in both eyes was bad enough to have surgery on one and wait a bit and have the other one done. Even so I still have the worsening problem of needing both hands to
steady the soldering iron to do work.
Getting old ain't for sissies.
Tim
On the bright side - alzheimers(sp?) will mean I never have to watch reruns and I will always be meeting new people.