U.S. Army Highlights PCB Manufacturing Legacy with New Microelectronics Facility

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The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command’s (CECOM) Tobyhanna Army Depot opened a new microelectronics manufacturing facility in June 2025 to expand repair, manufacturing, and testing capabilities for circuit card requirements used in complex military systems. The opening highlights the army’s continued investment in sustaining and modernizing critical electronics capabilities - and draws attention to the military’s foundational role in the development of printed circuit board (PCB) technology.

Few are aware that the origins of printed circuit boards can be traced to one of CECOM’s predecessor organizations, the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories, and the pioneering work conducted there in the years following World War II. In 1949, Signal Corps scientists Moe Abramson and Stanislaus F. Danko developed the “Auto-sembly” process, a breakthrough manufacturing method that punched holes in printed or etched circuits, inserted component leads, and soldered all connections simultaneously by dipping the assembly into a solder bath.

As board lamination and etching techniques advanced, the Auto-sembly concept evolved into what would become the standard process for printed circuit board fabrication. The U.S. Army was awarded the patent for the innovation in 1956, formalizing its role in shaping modern electronics manufacturing.

Printed circuit techniques had already gained momentum by the late 1940s. National Bureau of Standards Circular 468, published in 1947, stated that printed electronic circuits were no longer experimental, noting their early mass-production use in radio proximity fuzes for mortar shells developed during World War II. At the time, printed circuits were produced on insulated surfaces using methods such as painting, spraying, chemical deposition, vacuum processing, die-stamping, and dusting.

In an article titled “Auto-sembly of Miniature Military Equipment,” printed in the July 1951 edition of Electronics Magazine, the authors, Danko and S.J. Lanzalott,i explain the evolution of the technique, first experimenting with chemically etched printed circuit boards in 1949, which arose from the process used by nameplate manufacturers to create signs. “The system designated as Auto-sembly borrows the very convenient prefabricated conductor pattern of printed circuits and permits rapid and effective electrical combination of this pattern with conventional quality components by a one-shot solder-dip process. The elements of Auto-Sembly are (1) formation of the conductor pattern, (2) selection of components, (3) rapid assembly, and (4) packaging.”

The benefits of the system were clearly laid out. The mobilization advantages included the following:

• Saving Labor by eliminating manual wiring,
• Minimizing rejects due to the increased uniformity of etched wiring,
• Eliminates unsoldered joints because all joints are made simultaneously in one solder-dip operation.
• Reduces inspection time because mechanization reduces errors.
• Speeds assembly time with no hook or wrap-around joints,
• Permits greater miniaturization due to compact etched wiring, which lends itself to the stacking of chassis layers,
• Improves reliability by eliminating short circuits between connections and leads.

The process remains relevant today, and the innovations of the “auto-sembly” process were transformative for both the military and commercial enterprises.

Click here to learn more about the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM).