Chips and Boards

There are many mature and evolving technologies that go into the production of electronic systems.  Ultimately, all the vast majority of the circuitry is on integrated circuits using one or more process technologies to fabricate them as little chips of silicon or other materials. These are then packaged and bonded onto circuit boards.  For production each physical level takes a final form that can usually be printed in small batches or large numbers and the components can be placed and bonded by automated equipment.  The economies of scale are defined by lot size pricing that measure the performance of each technology and production system by services throughout a product life-cycle from prototype to production.

Our learning laboratories will take advantage of the advanced state ofprototyping tools and cheap systems components to build prototypes that could be scaled to mass production but can also be supplied as kits of components to be integrated into personalized final products.  You can replace your Androids and iPhones with hackable systems of equal and greater capabilities.  Networks of hand-on suppliers and hackers of these systems could grow into a significant industry where it is hard to tell the suppliers from the consumers as they are all product evangilists for their favorites.