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G reen Circuits' unique niche in the electronics manufacturing industry comes partly from its location in Silicon Valley, but also from its specialty of serving up quick-turn prototypes and low-volume work with high-complexity production. In this con- versation, CEO Michael Hinshaw emphasizes the value of end-to-end services, especially while the pace of R&D development is accelerating amidst a growing demand for complexity across industries. Green Circuits' sustained success, he says, stems from being a partner engineers can rely on—some- thing that scales through relationships, referrals, and a reputation for complex builds. Nolan Johnson: Your location in Silicon Valley provides a unique placement and customer base to serve locally. How do you describe your niche at Green Circuits? Michael Hinshaw: To our customers, we are a quick-turn prototype house, but we straddle the line between the capabilities of a large contract man- ufacturer (CM) and the agility and interpersonal relationships of a small shop. Truthfully, with 190 employees, we're probably one of the largest quick- turn CMs in California, and maybe even in the U.S. We run five lines with 20 Juki machines, so our lines are substantial. Our builds focus on agility and high complexity. We can take customers from prototype into low-volume complex production. Silicon Valley is a solid customer base for us. I'd say about 60% of what we do is on the West Coast; 40% is in the rest of the country, from New England to the Space Coast (Florida) to Huntsville, Alabama, to Texas to Colorado. We've a diverse geographic footprint. Our customer mix is about 30% aerospace and defense and about 30% medical. The rest is a mix of power systems, automation, and AI, all with a tendency toward higher complexity, smaller vol- umes, and high-performance situations. F E AT U R E I N T E RV I E W by N o l a n J o h n s o n , I - C O N N ECT 0 07 Be the Partner Engineers Can Rely On 14 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2025