The inventor of the printed circuit board was the Austrian Paul Eisler, who used it in a radio set in 1936. In 1943, Americans used this technology extensively in military radios. In 1948, the United States officially recognized the invention for commercial use. On June 21, 1950, Paul Eisler obtained the patent right for the invention of the circuit board, and it has been exactly 60 years since then.
This person who is dubbed the “father of circuit boards” has a wealth of life experience, but is rarely known to fellow PCB circuit board manufacturers.
12-layer blind buried via PCB circuit board / circuit board
In fact, Eisler’s life story, as described in his autobiography, My Life with Printed Circuits, resembles a mystical novel full of persecution.
Eisler was born in Austria in 1907 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Vienna in 1930. Already at that time he showed a gift for being an inventor. However, his first goal was to find a job in a non-Nazi land. But the circumstances of his time led the Jewish engineer to flee Austria in the 1930s, so in 1934 he found a job in Belgrade, Serbia, designing an electronic system for trains that would allow passengers to record personal records through earphones , like an iPod. However, at the end of the job, the client provides food, not currency. Therefore, he had to return to his native Austria.
Back in Austria, Eisler contributed to newspapers, founded a radio magazine, and began to learn printing techniques. Printing was a powerful technology in the 1930s, and he began to imagine how printing technology could be applied to circuits on insulating substrates and put into mass production.
In 1936, he decided to leave Austria. He was invited to work in England on the basis of two patents he had already filed: one for graphic impression recording and the other for stereoscopic television with vertical lines of resolution.
His television patent sold for 250 francs, which was enough to live in a Hampstead flat for a while, which was a good thing because he couldn’t find work in London. One phone company really liked his idea of a printed circuit board—it could eliminate the bundles of wires used in those phone systems.
Due to the outbreak of World War II, Eisler began to find ways to get his family out of Austria. When the war started, his sister committed suicide and he was detained by the British as an illegal immigrant. Even locked away, Eisler was still thinking about how to help the war effort.
After his release, Eisler worked for the music printing company Henderson & Spalding. Initially, his goal was to perfect the company’s graphic musical typewriter, working not in a laboratory but in a bombed-out building. Company boss H.V. Strong forced Eisler to sign all patents that appeared in the study. This isn’t the first, nor the last, time Eisler has been taken advantage of.
One of the troubles with working in the military is his identity: he has just been released. But he still went to military contractors to discuss how his printed circuits could be used in warfare.
Through his work at Henderson & Spalding, Eisler developed the concept of using etched foils to record traces on substrates. His first circuit board looked more like a plate of spaghetti. He filed for a patent in 1943.
At first no one really paid attention to this invention until it was applied to the fuze of artillery shells to shoot down V-1buzz bombs. After that, Eisler had a job and a little fame. After the war, the technology was spread. The United States stipulated in 1948 that all airborne instruments must be printed.
Eisler’s 1943 patent was eventually split into three separate patents: 639111 (three-dimensional printed circuit boards), 639178 (foil technology for printed circuits), and 639179 (powder printing). The three patents were issued on June 21, 1950, but only a handful of companies were granted patents.
In the 1950s, Eisler was exploited again, this time while working for the UK National Research and Development Corporation. The group essentially leaked Eisler’s U.S. patents. But he continued to experiment and invent. He came up with ideas for battery foil, heated wallpaper, pizza ovens, concrete molds, defrosting rear windows, and more. He achieved success in the medical field and died in 1992 with dozens of patents in his lifetime. He has just been awarded the Institution of Electrical Engineers’ Nuffield Silver Medal.
Post time: May-17-2023