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For PCB designers, this raises the stakes. Prob- lems that might stay hidden in another part of the circuit become obvious when they affect the display. Flicker, dimming, uneven brightness, slow response, touch errors, or early failure immediately shape the user's opinion of the product. The user may not know whether the issue is power delivery, signal routing, grounding, thermal design, or component placement. They just know the product doesn't feel right. In simple terms, the display is where the product meets the user. The PCB determines whether that meeting feels clear, reliable, and professional. Kuhn's observation fits this shift well. For decades, electronics followed a familiar framework: input occurred in one place, and output appeared else- where. That model shaped product design, user E L E M E N TA RY, M R . WATS O N JULY 2026 I I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE 111 interaction, and engineering thinking. But the display is no longer just a window into the system. It has become the point of interaction, communica- tion, and judgment. This month, I have focused on the larger shift, the "why" behind the growing importance of displays. Next month, I'll move into the "how" by examining the design specifications and layout details required to ensure display electronics operate reliably in real products. I-CONNECT007 John Watson is a professor at Palomar College, San Marcos, California. To read past columns, click here. Ceramic vs. PCB When 'Good Enough' Becomes System Failure Let's start with the question engineers are increasingly asking, not in design reviews, but quietly, and often too late: When should I use ce- ramic instead of FR-4? It's a fair question. FR-4 has been the backbone of electronics for decades. It's affordable, widely available, and for many ap- plications, it works just fine. Until it doesn't. That's the uncomfortable truth: Good enough is often the most dangerous decision in high- performance electronics. Not because it fails im- mediately, but slowly and expensively over time. The Real Limits of Traditional PCB Materials FR-4 has long been the default substrate for PCBs, but at its core, it is a compromise mate- rial. It was never engineered for the demands of extreme environments, high power densities, or multi-GHz signal integrity. Instead, it was de- signed to be broadly usable, balancing cost, me- chanical strength, electrical insulation, and manu- facturability for mass-market electronics. BY C H A N D R A G U PTA , R E M T EC This "good enough" philosophy becomes a limitation as performance requirements push be- yond its original design envelope. • Thermal conductivity is low (typically ~0.3–0.4 W/m·K), - heat builds up, not out • Dielectric properties vary with temperature and frequency • Mechanical expansion is inconsistent under stress • Moisture absorption changes performance over time In low-demand systems, these limitations are manageable. In high-performance systems, they become failure mechanisms. Yet, many designs still default to FR-4 because it's familiar, easy to source, and inexpensive—on paper. BELOW THE SURFACE Continue reading this column here.