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42 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2021 Feature Article by Alex Belelovsky SIEMENS EDA Tomorrow is Yesterday In 1966, when Star Trek first aired, PCBs were in their infancy. A handful of compo- nents mounted to a double-sided board with 6 mil traces was on the leading edge of electron- ics. Since then, much of electronic innovation has been driven by PCB technology. Could the trends in PCB innovation have been predicted at that time? Perhaps through science fiction like Star Trek we can boldly explore our own final frontier. Star Trek has always taken the universe it inhabits very seriously, always stretching our current understanding of technology by cre- ating a world where we accept the extraordi- nary as possible. ey have done this by tak- ing our understanding of current technology and extending it to its logical and plausible extremes. is methodology has amazingly pre- dicted cellphones, voice-activated comput- ers, and transparent aluminum, but can it be used within the PCB industry? e demand for more complex PCBs has resulted in new and enhanced design demands and pro- duction technologies, processes, and mate- rials that not necessarily have gone hand-in- hand along the way. Did Star Trek work to predict this? Star Trek: Laying a Path for Technology of Tomorrow, Today