Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOL. 3, No. 5 TELEVISION DIGEST— 7 MANUFACTURING, DISTRIBUTION, FINANCE MOLECULAR REVOLUTION IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Consumer electronics now stands on brink of technical revolution so radical it may be secondary in significance only to development of the vacuum tube. You may well see first product evidences of it this year. Within few years, it will be industry's mostdiscussed topic, with drastic & dramatic implications from top to bottom of trade. We're referring to the rapidly growing solid-state technology known as molecular electronics — or, if you prefer, "integrated circuits" or "functional blocks" or "microcircuitry." A pie-in-the-sky development for military circuits & computers? No. Probably for more than many in the trade realize, integrated circuitry will have its most profound influence on consumer products — starting soon. In 5 short years, molectronics has startled some of its most fervent enthusiasts with its rapid progress. Believed ideally suited for military & computer electronics because it mokes possible drastic reductions in size, weight & power drain and almost unheard-of increases in reliability, this technology has now advanced to the point where it promises 2 qualities which make it a natural for consumer products : Potential ease of mass production, and sharp reduction in costs over present TV-radio-phono production & circuit techniques. Molecular electronics, an outgrowth of transistor technology, involves fabrication of entire semiconductor circuits — including transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductances — in one single imit. Thus, an entire amplifier circuit might be deposited or "grown," occupying space of a postage stamp or matchhead, with no identifiable "components" or connections. External connections (probably the cause of most equipment failures) con be cut down as much as tenfold. What is new in this field is increasing belief that this technique is ideally suitable for consumer products, and indications are that microcircuitry is already being penciled-in for pioneering use in consumer items this year. And this will be the year that molecular circuits first go into mass production for military equipment. Importance being attached to this new technology is evidenced by fact that Westinghouse is now building 2 new molectronics plants — in Baltimore & on West Coast — and has established molecular electronics as full-fledged department in its components group, bringing in C. Harry Knowles, former asst. gen. mgr. of Motorola Semiconductor Products, to head it. GE has just opened $500,000 microelectronics lab in Utica. Virtually every semiconductor manufacturer is giving top priority to molectronics research, development, and — now — pilot production. • • • • First to point out integrated circuits' ideal affinity to consumer products was Westinghouse — almost 2 years ago (Vol. 17:26 pl5), to the accompaniment of raised eyebrows and even outright snickers come segments of industry. At recent opening of GE's micro lab, gen. mgr. George H. Siegel predicted that "microcircuitry might not follow the traditional role of evolution from military to industrial to commercial application. Rather, the pressure of rapidly decreasing prices may well permit incorporation of microcircuits in commercial & home entertainment equipment — TV, radios & phonographs — prior to their widespread use in industrial applications" (Vol. 3:4 pll). "Every prediction about microcircuits has been conservative," Siegel told us last week. "We had been predicting 1970, but now it wouldn't be surprising to see it extended to consumer items within 3 or 4 years. He said microcircuits promise tenfold increase in reliability, coupled with 25-50% reduction in cost in mass production. Techniques for making single-crystal circuits ore identical to those for making silicon transistors, he told us. "Currently, it appears that circuits con be made [in mass production] for about 4 times the cost of a transistor." At Westinghouse, R&D vp Seymour W. Herwarld told us : "It's coming sooner than many people will admit. And now it's becoming clear that in addition to its other advantages, molecular electronics is funda