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Pioneers Tryst with Printed and Hybrid Circuits

History of Printed and Hybrid Circuits in India
Author: Prof. Mitter Vedu
Synopsis
In India printed circuits with phenolic paper laminates made their debut with Philips in Pune and ITI in
Bangalore in 1960. By the latter half of 60s the demand for professional grade printed circuits commenced
and Hegde & Golay (H&G) pioneered the manufacture of professional grade printed circuits on glass-epoxy
laminates with plated through holes as well as multiple layers, heralding a new era in manufacture of
professional electronics equipment ranging from calculators, computers, communication equipment to
defence and space. I had the unique role of spearheading this technology as well as pioneering the
manufacture of polymer thick film and chip-on-board ceramic, glass epoxy and polyimide circuits for the first
time in the country. The following pages recount my story as a pioneer till 2014 over nearly fifty years of
association with electronic micro-packaging. It was an exciting journey cultivating self-reliance of the highest
order in indigenous electronics manufacturing culminating in extraordinary capabilities in printed and hybrid
circuits and electronic watches, besides leaving a legacy of world class quality and technology.

The story

It was 1966 September. I had just conducted in my capacity as Member-Secretary of the All-India
Students Anti-Hindi Agitation Council (in co-operation with Provash Ghosh of Calcutta and P.
Srinivasan of Madras) the All-India Students Language Conference in Calcutta successfully with over
400 delegates from all over India, advocating the indefinite continuance of English as the Official
Language of the Union by way of culmination of student mobilization ever since 1963. I had also
finished and passed with flying colors my M. E., in Advanced Electronics at the Indian Institute of
Science and was awaiting a possible enrolment for Ph.D.,. I had just vacated my room, the famous G-
9, Mens Hostel at I.I.Sc., where the decision to put up P.Srinivasan as the contestant to K. Kamaraj at
Virudunagar was taken. I attended many interviews and was expecting offers from Coimbatore
Institute for Technology (Lecturer), NAL (Scientific Assistant), Technical Teacher Training Program
(GOI) etc.,
My M.E., course included, as part of my practical work in my project, making of a printed circuit
using handmade nylon screen-printing on a Bakelite board. It was considered dirty work amidst the
more sophisticated (!) microwave experiments using klystron, magnetron etc.,. I was also a favorite
student of Dr N Seshagiri having stood first in his computer classes. At that time there were three
places where printed circuits (printed wiring boards) were made crudely on phenolic substrates
using screen printing techniques; Indian Telephone Industries (ITI)(collaboration with Bell
Telephones, Antwerp, Belgium); Bharat Electronics (for Radar) and Philips India (Pune)(for their
transistor radio). The substrates (laminates) were made by Formica and Bakelite Hylam as an adjunct
to their decorative laminates business. Surface preparation of copper clad phenolic laminates
involved degreasing using steel wool, then rubbing with wet tamarind for descaling before screen-
printing (2mm lines and spaces! 1000micron holes! No plating or plated-through holes!). Etching was
done with Ferric Chloride manually. Turpentine was used to remove ink; steel wool treatment for
surface preparation before application of marginally solderable Lunar lacquer by brushing or
spraying! Hybrid circuits were non-existent.
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Month of October. I got my appointment as Lecturer in Coimbatore Institute of Technology; NAL and
TT program too. Was not inclined to join hoping to get my Ph.D., call from Dr BS Sonde; which never
probably would come. I always wanted to be in academics or in the private sector as an innovator in
preference to being in the public sector or the government as I had always seen my hard-working
and upright father struggling for recognition in Electricity Board. An advertisement in the Indian
Express captioned Top-notch Project Engineer for an Electronics Project caught my eye; I had
inkling this may be a risky but tremendous opportunity to be associated from day one in an exciting
project where hard and intelligent work would be rewarded handsomely. I attended the interview at
IIT, Madras; Prof.Sampath who was Deputy Director and Mr BT Shankar Hegde, a small scale
entrepreneur, spoke glowingly about the electronics project in collaboration with Bernard Golay SA
of Switzerland; about how I can be a pioneer without stating the area of activity or product in detail.
I had great regard for professor and that largely influenced the decision. Returned to Madurai,
consulted my father and then gave a conditional acceptance as the job involved a contract to be
bound to the promoter for five years and with a non-compete clause for another five years; the
agreement was to be drafted jointly with the company lawyer subsequently.
November 1, 1966. Moved over to Madras. Met Mr Hegde at his dingy unimpressive factory at
Sydenham Road and went over to meet his family at Kilpauk Garden Colony. He was a gentleman
host with a lot of promising words. Next day had a meeting with Shri Sampathkumar, Advocate, in
his George Town office; looked at the draft and suggested some changes in view of my fathers
retired status assuring remittance of half my salary to him during my stay in Switzerland and the
total duration of the agreement. They were accepted only after some convincing. The agreement
was signed and was to take effect from the date of joining which was left open! Perhaps Hegde
wanted to save on salary till my passport was ready! I was asked to join finally which I did on January
25, 1967 at Shailendra Enterprises at Sydenhams Road at the dingy, dirty sheet metal workshop! Had
a look at correspondence with Bernard Golay SA and understood that the company was
manufacturing electronic ship chronometers and process timers for industrial control consoles. Did
not see much market for these products then in India! However, did some spadework trying to get
quotes for centralized AC systems and factory furniture and the like. Another major challenge was
latent in the job; it was the language of French which was the only language understood in the part
of Switzerland, Canton de Vaud, where Lausanne was situated; the seat of the International Red
Cross then. Rummaged Moore Market, located Hugos French in Three Months and started study.
My technical German in which I stood first in class at I.I.Sc after a two years course taught by Dr Hans
Meinel did not help me as German was more like Sanskrit and was different from other languages of
Latin and Anglo-Saxon descent. My English was strong as I stood first in University of Madras in my
B.Sc. public examination. That helped to an extent in understanding French grammar, but was of no
use in pronunciation. Was nothing like hearing and speaking French.
All was set for my journey to Lausanne.
Feb 25, 1967. Boarded a Boeing 707 of Air India with just 21GBP (250 Rs) (nothing more was allowed
as money then due to stringent Foreign Exchange controls). After a flight and airport change and
customs and immigration clearance and long wait of four hours at Bombay took an Air India flight to
Zurich. A three hour wait at Zurich boarded the last flight to Geneva and arrived at Geneva. Bernard
Golay was personally there to receive and drove me to Hotel Jan at Lausanne. Checked in at 3 pm
local time, had a wash and was ready at 5 pm as instructed by Mr Golay. He took me to a restaurant
for food. Being vegetarian, the menu contained nothing known. I was asked to try an Italian Pizza.
The strange smell (or was it a stink?) prevented me from eating much. A good glass of orange juice
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and yoghurt ended the day with some nutrition. The stink, sorry, the aroma was of one of the
advanced forms of the 220 varieties of French/Swiss cheese!
Next morning. At 9.00 AM Lucian Geiger picked me up and drove me to Croix Rouges 2 where
Bernard Golay SA office was located. After a brief meeting with Bernard Golay and Jacques Piguet,
the Accountant and Office Manager, was taken to the electronics lab in Avenue de Tivoli and
introduced to Jean Claude Berney, the Director of the research labs. After a few hours of looking at
what was being done there I was taken to Hotel Jan; checked out and was taken with baggage to 15,
Mont Goulin at Prilly and introduced to Mademoiselle Elisa Sandoz , my host, at Mont Goulin 15
where I was to stay as a paying guest. She was extremely affable and old enough to be a grandma,
being a retired nurse, but did not know even a word of English! Voil! Thus began my momentous 20
months stay in Switzerland.
As I was attending Bernard Golay Research Labs where I learnt about Chronometers and Crystal
Oscillator controlled process control instrumentation, the project to produce the very first electronic
quartz watch in the world began for Longines under a development contract with the inventor
Berney as head of the combined research team. At that time there were only Small-Scale-Integrated
circuits (SSIs) being made in the world. Medium-Scale-Integrated circuits (MSI) were just under
development at RCA, USA. Miniaturization was a major challenge to bring accurate time keeping on
the wrist. Bulky inductors were involved in quartz oscillators and quartz was the only way to get
enhanced accuracy as against mechanical automatic watches. Berney had already invented
completely resistor based quartz oscillators and patented it. This could eliminate the need for
inductors for the tank circuit. An MSI to Berneys design was outsourced from RCA under a secrecy
agreement. The challenge of micro-packaging components remained. Printed circuit board or hybrid
thick film circuits, was the question. Bernard Golay SA did not have either facility.
As luck would have it, Cicorel SA, at La-Chaux-de-Fonds, a small scale manufacturer of single-sided
glass-epoxy printed circuits, was up for sale being in debts. Bernard Golay and Pierre Schaller saw an
opportunity and seized it. Cicorel was bought and shifted to Renens near Lausanne. This enabled in a
great way the project for the electronic watch as we shall see later.
The watch required fast an interconnection system in-house and hybrid development would take
longer than can be tolerated by the required deadline. The design necessitated double-sided printed
circuit board with at least 250 micron traces and spaces with 0.5 mm holes on a 0.5 mm glass-epoxy
substrate. The traces (conductors) needed gold plating as we intended to make the watch fit for
outer space; tin plating which was in vogue then was known to develop whiskers especially in outer
space and was unfit for wire bonding. Cicorel, then, could make single sided PCBs (Printed Circuit
Boards) only of thickness 0.8 mm-2.4mm thick glass epoxy with no plated through holes. Several
enquiries for Plated-through-holes (PTH) boards such as for famous radar Company Contraves AG
were not possible to execute. Pierre Schaller, Director of Cicorel found it impossible to allocate
personnel for Research & Development as the employees were preoccupied with single-sided orders
and besides none was educated enough to be assigned to research. I had by then identified
Professional Grade Printed Circuits and possibly electronic watches/ time distribution systems later
as a possible project for India and had written to Shankar Hegde strongly recommending for a
favorable decision. This was sometime in June 1967. My Swiss Visa was to expire in August.
Pierre Schaller made a request to Bernard Golay to lend my services for three months to conduct
research on new processes for PCBs and the request was acceded to. My Visa got extended for six
months and I was temporarily transferred to Cicorel at Renens. I worked in all sections, one by one,
to be conversant with existing processes. In every section I brought about improvements in quality
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and productivity by new methods; I moved to supervisory responsibilities and ultimately to
production responsibility in a matter of four months! Evenings were spent chalking out a program of
research into how to make reliable PTH PCBs; then Riston of Du Pont was nonexistent and
application of photoresist using spray or whirler techniques yielded innumerable problems inside
holes due to inadequate removal of Kodak PhotoResist 2 leading to voids and nodules. Working 14-
16 hours every day various possible ways were explored and found to be ineffective; it struck me
that the only way the holes can be free of photoresist is not to allow the photoresist to get there in
the first place; this would be practical only if drilling takes place after formation of traces and etching
both sides. The process sequence was therefore changed completely so as to drill after etching but
before electroless copper; however the challenge of preventing electroless copper from sticking on
to etched epoxy areas remained. I wanted a paint applicable by spraying, drying fast and with a
shining finish. Pierre Schaller found Lumiflex an acrylic-based clear paint which was used as a lacquer
to protect wood. This enabled the new process postulated by me to work (which was documented in
the presence of a Notary Public and patenting was contemplated). Cicorel started accepting orders
for PTH and we progressively delivered prototype PCB to Berney, production quantities to Contraves
AG at Zurich, Matiz SA at Lausanne. Pierre Schaller saw the potential in me as he extended his time
also in the factory and expressed to Bernard Golay that I should extend my visa for another six
month and beyond if necessary. Bernard Golay could get Shankar Hegdes consent based on my
reports that professional grade printed circuits especially plated through hole could be our first
project in India. I had also indicated that one more electronic engineer be taken for the watch/time
distribution activities and also a chemical engineer for the PCB production as lot of plating was
involved. T. Venkateswara Babu who was one year junior to me in M.E., at I.I.Sc was taken and he
joined me in Switzerland. He joined Berney to fill my gap with Berney.
August 1967. Cicorel obtained an order for flexible circuits on Mylar/Kapton from Paillard SA at
Neuchatel for their film projectors as a development order. Pierre Schaller assigned me the
challenge. The circuits were satisfactorily manufactured and delivered to Paillard SA in about four
weeks. This was my first foray into flexibles which would come in handy later in India.
October 1967. Bernard Golay SA and Cicorel SA decided to exhibit in Inter-Nepcon 1967 at London in
November. Cicorel received an order from Elliotts Automation in England for 100 PTH boards to be
delivered within a month as they were unable to get reliable supply from anywhere in Europe. The
production had to be achieved in 15 days as against the normal delivery of 4-6 weeks. Babu was also
drafted for assistance for a month and both of us worked 16 hours a day and overnight the last day
and successfully realized what was needed. We were ready to deliver and it was decided that we
carry the boards personally to London. Elliotts Automation technical staff were thrilled to receive
such good boards which passed all their inspection and testing. Babu and I manned the Golay stalls
at Inter-Nepcon 1967. I had the good fortune of attending a 2 day course on Thick Film Hybrids there
which gave me a great insight into hybrid circuits as well as wire-bonding. The visit to Inter-Nepcon
gave a strong exposure to machines and processes for micro-packaging electronics.
By the time we returned we had a letter of appreciation from Elliotts Automation at Cicorel and a
repeat order. We were on cloud nine with a worthwhile invention which could put Cicorel on the
path to success. Cicorel became a pioneer in PTH PCBs in all of Europe before many others. Research
continued into increasing layers and reducing line widths and spaces. The electronics watch project
gathered pace with the first prototype passing all tests. It was decided to manufacture 10000 as a
first lot and plan was drawn up Golay-Longines combine headed by Berney.
My French was improving by leaps and bounds, thanks to my loquacious host Tantelle, and many
friends at Cicorel. This accelerated my work at Cicorel and I started planning for the Printed Circuit
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project in India. I visited equipment manufacturers in several parts of Europe including Resco in
Milan where I met Dr Matthaes and Dr Ajassa. I got Shailendra Enterprises (Hegdes enterprise) to
represent Resco in India. Shankar Hegde had booked a readymade shed reserved for small scale
industries in an industrial area in Vyasarpadi industrial estate in Madras (now Chennai). I had a
feeling that Madras was not the right place for PCB as most electronics activity was in Bangalore
with Bharat Electronics, Indian Telephones and Hindustan Aeronautics situated in Bangalore. I wrote
about it, but Hegde spurned my suggestion.
November 1968. Finally, I left Switzerland fully prepared to head and execute the project in India.
Friends at both Bernard Golay SA and Cicorel SA bade me a tearful farewell with their best wishes for
the future. Babu stayed on with developing basic designs for Modular Time Distribution Systems.
Back in India, having spent considerable time in Bangalore and Lausanne, I felt Madras was sultry,
dirty and disorganized! From my residence at crowded Vepery, going by bus every day to Ambattur
Industrial Estate where Bit-Tul Private Limited (makers of mechanical cutting tools) was situated for
designing and fabricating worktables and revolving chairs was nothing less than an ordeal. The
brighter side of it was my acquaintance and friendship with Manohar, a fresh mechanical
engineering diploma holder, son of ICF works Manager. He was able to grasp my requirements and
help in physically realizing my visualization of how the mechanical hardware should be for
ergonomically comfortable working. We also simultaneously visited Vysarpadi and started making
ground marking and layout design for the equipment planned for the project. All the same my
underlying disappointment at having to plan for a less-than-optimum size factory with no scope for
expansion at Madras where no electronics activity was existing then continued to gnaw at me. Made
a fresh attempt to speak to Hegde and write to Golay about my views.
January 1969. We started looking for a Chemical Engineer who could be later in charge of production
of Printed Circuits as a good amount of Electroplating activity was involved. Along with
Prof.Sampath, Hegde and I interviewed candidates and zeroed in on Mr G. Sudarsanam who had just
completed M.Tech with excellent grades at IIT Madras. The offer was given. Sudarsanam and his
father Mr Gitachari visited me at my Vepery residence on my invitation and had questions regarding
how a chemical engineer can have a career in an electronics project clarified. Over lunch we had an
elaborate discussion on how Printed Circuits were manufactured and how it would be meeting
Indias needs in electronics. Sudarsanam accepted the offer and shortly thereafter he proceeded to
Lausanne for training at Cicorel.
May 1969. Hegde made a visit to Bangalore and met Mr Veerendra Patil, the then Chief Minister of
Karnataka. The CM appreciated his plans to make watches and printed circuits and offered speedy
help. On his return, Hegde asked us to stop all work at Vyasarpadi and Ambattur and broke the news
that we were to move to Bangalore for good on a more ambitious project. Made a visit to Bangalore
met Mr KLV Subbaiah, Planning Manager of MICO; Hegde purchased from him a 4 acre land near
Doddakalasandra in the South of Bangalore. Plans were made to shift Bit-Tul Private Limited also
into that land along with the electronics project. This effectively delayed the project schedule by 6-8
months.
July 1969. I shifted my residence to Jayanagar 4
th
Block. The acquired land was green-field with no
industries around; was about 5 kms from my house. We rented a villa at Ashoka Pillar Road in
Jayanagar 1
st
Block for the project office. Besides planning for the project in detail again, I had on
hand selling cutting tools and responding to customer complaints for work! Commuting between
project office and site was by walk during the first month and by bicycle thereafter. After all
Government clearances were obtained and finalizing the construction plan with M/s LM Chitale &
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Son at Madras, I shifted my attention full time to the site. The initial business was dependent on
Cicorel giving us export orders, Hegdes attention shifted to getting approvals for the first-ever
bonded warehouse and bonded manufacture in the country. The corporate entity Hegde & Golay
Private Limited was born by changing the name of Superweld Electrodes Pvt Ltd, one of the many
companies registered then.
Mr HB Narasimha Rao joined me as a mechanical engineer and Manohar was shifted from Madras to
Bangalore. Borewells were made and water was ensured. Building construction started with the
basement earmarked for stores which was temporarily made into an office; Narasimha Rao acted as
my typist and draughtsman while Manohar went about fabricating work desks, spray booths, chairs
etc., Hegde was interested in fabricating on one off basis every machine, but my view was to import
the essential ones to ensure quality and after much conflict I had my way. He also recommended an
open shed-like manufacturing, whereas I was clear that partitions were necessary to keep the
atmosphere controlled for quality output; I had to force my way and was reprimanded for my
initiative!
November 1969. We received news that Neil Armstrong wore the first electronic watch in the world
gifted to him by Bernard Golay worked well on the surface of the moon and returned. The gold
plated miniature PCB made by me had proved its worth!
Babu joined after 18 months in Switzerland by November and the building was almost ready.
Equipments and materials started arriving. Hegde had by then succeeded in getting the necessary
permissions for bonded manufacturing for the first time in South India. Trials were done in
December and the factory inauguration took place on January 01, 1970 and the first invoice was
made for the first ever export of printed circuits from India to Switzerland.
May 1, 1970. A day of tragedy. Manohar who went to Bit-Tul building to help them unload machines
from a truck was caught under the machine and died on the spot. Mr EAS Prasanna (the cricket
great) who had joined us a month back as Marketing Manager and I went to Victoria Hospital with
Manohars body where post-mortem was done. Manohars father in Madras was informed and he
came rushing. It was a heart-wrenching experience to see the father sobbing whose only son was
lost. The funeral was arranged at St. Patricks church and the burial was completed. It was decided
that every May 1
st
will be observed as Manohar Memorial Day.
By then Mr KV Aithal had joined and helped fill Manohars place admirably. Mr KP Karanth joined
and he was assigned sales work for Resco machines on behalf of Shailandra Enterprises. He made
contact with Mr Subbaraman at BEL and Dr S Venkatachalam at LRDE. Dr Venkatachalam was trying
to make PTH printed circuits on glass-epoxy laminates in his research labs and had problems in holes
using whirler-coating of photoresist (KPR2). Resco Roller Coater with KPR4 was a possible solution,
though not a perfect one; KP Karanth successfully sold a Roller Coater to LRDE.
As Hegde & Golay printed circuit exports were continuing, people from BARC, BEL, HAL, ITI, ECIL, SAC
etc., visited the facility and they needed high quality professional grade printed circuits for realizing
their designs. They were so impressed that they requested us to apply for special permission from
the authorities to sell a portion of production to the domestic market. By August 1970, this became
possible. Regular marketing staff joined and by 1971 we had thirty domestic customers both in the
public and private sector. Many customers hailed the advent of H&G as a major step in self-reliance
for the country with scarce foreign exchange and restricted imports. H&G Printed Circuits went on
from strength to strength as a pioneer and was involved in many firsts in Printed Circuits.
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Mr K Srinivasan, Mr ND Kaikini, Mr Nanjaraj Urs, Mr DS Raghavan, Mr AP Vasudevan, Mr T Srirama
Reddy, Mr A Vijayendra, Mr PF Naicker, Mr Ramesh, Mr Rajaram et al joined at different times and
contributed their mite; Sudarsanam returned from Switzerland after 18 months and Karanth took his
place in Switzerland. Sudarsanam helped enhance production and established a bigger plating shop
and a more sophisticated chemical laboratory. Babu moved to realize his designs of clocks and
electronic modular time distribution systems with Mr Eric Dilipkumar assisting him. I moved on to
Research, Methods and Quality Assurance which enabled me to bring out many firsts in interconnect
technology. Mr S. Krishnamurthy and Mr Gopalakrishnan joined early on in 1970 for cost control and
accounts respectively. Krishnamurthy and I introduced many a system to tone up management. I
could do a good deal of industrial engineering and quality management system activity bringing
about substantial productivity improvements.
November 1971. ITI needed 36000 phenolic boards for its transmission equipment in six weeks when
Mr UDN Rao was Works Manager (Transmission). He decided ITI with its limited facilities cannot
make them and sought help from H&G. Then Mr Mukund Shah of Electrotech, Pune and Mr Basava
Purnaiah of Rao Insulating in Bangalore were the only screen-printed phenolic single-sided PCB
manufacturers in the private sector. Our policy then was not to make phenolic boards using screen-
printing at all in H&G. However this challenge was worth taking as it would eventually open entry
into ITI in a big way for professional grade PCBs too. To separate the image, Shreeshyla Graphics was
born as a strategy and succeeded in meeting ITIs requirement in time with exceptional co-operation
from ITI. We had to work almost round the clock with black paper on windows as working at night
was then prohibited by a black-out due to the threat of bombing from Pakistan as the war of 1971
was raging on both western and eastern fronts.
With Prof. UR Rao establishing the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore, H&G became a vital supplier to
ISRO to realize the landmark projects of Aryabhatta, Bhaskara I, Bhaskara II and Apple satellites.
DCM Data Products realized their first calculators with H&G printed circuits. H&G became a synonym
for quality and reliability in interconnect technology saving precious foreign exchange for the
country. Analogue electronic quartz watches became available to India. Computers,
Communications, Defence and Aerospace electronics were indigenously manufactured owing to the
availability of electronic packaging design and manufacturing capability in the country.
1973. H&G recovered after a brief labor unrest in 1972 and customers remained loyal despite the
brief upset on account of established quality of product and service. Sudarsanam moved to establish
Anand Electronics ( He later went on to establish Stovec-Screens and Fine Line Circuits). Dr
Venkatachalam moved to establish worthy Hi-Q electronics giving customers more choice for
professional grade printed circuits. However, H&G held its own in quality and reliability.
1974. Instead of going into full-fledged electronics, Hegde became enamoured of mechanical
watches. KIADB acquired and gave 65 acres of land and with the help of KSIIDC and KFC (financial
institutions)
Plans were drawn up for a sprawling industrial estate and a watch assembly facility to challenge
HMT, the public sector watch giant established with Citizen collaboration. With the launch of
Cauvery, the automatic mechanical watches H&G entered manufacture of mechanical watches also.
Swiss who were traditionally opposed to giving watch technology outside caused problems to Golay
SA from Swiss cartels which were opposed to giving technology outside.
Babu left H&G and started Laktham Electronics to pursue his own dream of being an entrepreneur.
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1976. There was a growing need for Multilayer Printed Circuits and H&G responded by making them
for the first time in India up to six layers.
Mr BN Ramesh and then Mr G Madhu in administration and HR made useful contributions.
1977. Electronic watches with digital LCD display was started with help from Motorola. A complete
assembly facility was set up using chip-on-board technology on soft gold plated printed circuits; and
these watches were priced at around Rs 250/- whereas HMT automatic mechanical watches made in
Tumkur were being sold at Rs 450/-. HMT saw this as a major threat to its 30 crore investment in
Tumkur. H&Gs main competition was smuggling from Hong Kong. Smuggled digital watches with
basic functions were available in Chickpet on the pavement for Rs 100/-. To meet this threat we
designed and tested extensively a basic digital LCD watch which could be sold for Rs 86/-. H&G
applied for expansion licences both for mechanical and digital watches. Morarji Desai was Prime
Minister and George Fernandes was Minister for Industry then. They both saw this as threat to HMT
and hence refused expansion licence; to add fuel to the fire they also brought out a restrictive
electronic watch policy which stipulated that no electronic watch should be sold for less than Rs
450/- and any difference between Rs 450/- and ex-factory price should be credited to the
Consolidated Fund of India. Besides, all electronic watch assemblers should use only modules
manufactured by Semiconductor Complex Ltd at Chandigarh. This sounded the death knell for H&G
watch units as well as Shreeshyla Co-operative Industrial Estate housing about 20 Small Scale
companies. The downward spiral began and the whole initiative to manufacture mechanical watches
proved a blunder.
1978. State Bank of India loan payments and interest payments burdened the company. The case
went to the courts. A lender never helps when you are in need, but he offers loan when you do not
need it! Universal truth!
This situation progressively affected printed circuits also. By 1981, it became clear to me that Hegde
protected his bread and butter with Shailendra Enterprises and Bit-Tul Private Limited being outside
the purview of SBI, but left H&G in the lurch with Golay also liquidated in Switzerland. I moved in
July 1981, teaming up with N.Kumar of Sanmar Group, Chennai, who was interested in
manufacturing electronic components. After looking at a few sick units like Hilversum, we concluded
that the idea of taking over and turning around sick units making other components was not such a
good idea and with the vacuum being created by H&G going down printed and hybrid circuits were
the right area to get into. Prof. UR Rao had always suggested to me that micro packaging electronics
was an important area to further self-reliance in the country. We therefore decided to set up an
advanced Printed and Hybrid circuit unit and named it as Micropack Ltd and Minicircuits Limited in a
new industrial area at Jigani. Jigani got its first telephone exchange and electrical sub-station by our
efforts.
Micropack was incorporated in 1982 and came into operation in January 1984. Mr K. Srinivasan, Mr
Ramanath Raje Urs, Mr S. Raghunath, Mr Mario Torpy, Mr AP Vasudevan, Mr DS Raghavan, Mr V
Vaidyanathan, Mr S Nandagopal, Mr K Vasudevan & Mr Neelakantan (from Indchem Electronics), Mr
Sashikumar, Mr Francis Xavier, Mr G.Jayaraj, Mr Alagappan, Mr Venugopal, Mr Palani, Mr
Palaniprasad, Mr GP Hegde, Mr Srinivasa Naidu, Mr Stanley Sampathkumar, Mr Jayashankar, Mr
Sampathraj (from Minicircuits), Mr CR Umanath, Mr Sadashiva (Micropack Research), Mr HS
Srinivasa Reddy, Mr MA Ranganath (Quality) et al joined me at different times to contribute their
mite to make Micropack the undisputed leader in PTH and Multilayer technology. All the sectors in
electronics benefited by Micropacks capabilities including aerospace and defence units. Micropack/
Minicircuits won many laurels including Elcina awards for import substitution for Multi-layer Printed
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Circuit Boards, Membrane Key Boards, and Invention Promotion Awards for MLBs and Hybrid
Circuits of NRDC. Micropack Research was a DSIR recognized R&D Lab. We registered two Indian
Patents, one on additive technology and the other on land-only MLBs sans soldermask having
enhanced shelf life for defence and space applications. Micropack remained the preferred supplier
for high reliability applications (MIL approved in 1991, ISO certified in 1991).
As Micropack President & CEO, I had the privilege of being the Chairman of Elcina Panel for PCB
Industry, Co-Founder of Indian Printed Circuit Association, and President of IPCA 1989-1991. In 1994
I moved as Executive Director of the Electronics Group of Sanmar which included Micropack in its
fold with TQM as my major agenda for the group and retired in 2000. Joined PES School of
Management (now PES University) as Professor of Management and retired as Professor in 2002;
Continued as a consultant for Quality being an ASQ certified Software Quality Engineer and Six Sigma
Black Belt.
In the course of these momentous years, we had trained about 1000 people at different levels in
micro packaging technology and this created the technical pool from which the printed circuit
industry grew. India could realize thermonuclear weapon systems, guided missiles, avionics,
satellites and rockets without depending on imports of Multilayer PCBs and Flexible and Flexi-rigid
PCBs.
Micropack avoided large scale production of printed circuits as there were other units like AT&S
(INDAL) to do that ( Mr RC Sarangi with Mr Krishnamurthy Rao spearheaded volume production at
Indal); it concentrated on the strategic sector and remained a technological pioneer. Micropack
introduced surface mount technology for electronics assembly, wire-bonding of open chips on
boards both ceramic and glass epoxy. Heat sink bonded boards, RT Duroid boards for high frequency
applications and strip lines was also introduced. With etch back, MLB layer count was increased.
Testing with pins on grid (Mania) and flying probe testers (Probot) were introduced to enhance
reliability. Pursuit of TQM and Six Sigma effected cost savings, increased productivity and Micropack
weathered the storm of import liberalization and indigenous competition admirably. Micropack and
Minicircuits were the first ever units to be certified to ISO 9000 series standards in India as early as
1991. Micropack was the first ever Indian company to be MIL approved by DESC (USA). Elcina
honored me with a special citation on my silver-jubilee year of service to the PCB industry. NRDC
(National Research Development Corporation of India) gave away two invention promotion awards,
one for MLB and the other for Hybrid Circuits. The crowning glory was however being elected
Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Circuit Technology (UK), the first and only Indian Fellow and one
among eight pioneers worldwide to be honored thus, of which Paul Eisler the inventor of the printed
circuit was the first.
Sanmar Group reorganized its businesses and after my retirement sold Micropack to another
promoter. Mr Sreekar Reddy (Director), Mr K Srinivasan(Executive Director) and Mr Pradeep (Vice-
President- Tech) are carrying the torch today. Micropack continues to be a Technology leader
manufacturing MLBs upto 26 layers besides flexible and flexi rigid boards for special hi-rel
applications. (Minicircuits pioneering in hybrid circuits and chip-on-board was closed after a labor
unrest and market shrinkage due to free imports after liberalization of the import regime and the fall
of demand for CDOT exchanges. Minicircuits machines were of use to Karnataka Hybrid devices
founded by Mr Ramkumar and Mr Sheshadri of ISRO at electronics city. Mr B. Rathinakumar moved
to Singapore; Mr HN Avinash and Mr Satyanarayana moved on other assignments.)
Countless others who went through portals of H&G or Micropack enriched many a circuit technology
company in the country to firmly establish the industry in India.
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Micropack remains yet the only and first Indian manufacturer approved by Defence Electronics
Supply Command (DESC, USA) for both rigid and flexi-rigid MLBs, besides being a technology leader
in interconnect technology. (As of January 2014).
Chronology of achievements in H&G and Micropack:
1. The first Glass Epoxy Single sided Board in India (1969).
2. The first Tin and Tin-lead plated Circuit in India (1970).
3. The first plated through hole circuit in India (1970).
4. The first LCSO approved professional grade PCB in India (1971).
5. The first UL-approved professional grade PCB in India (1972).
6. The first Multilayer Board in India (4 layer) (1975).
7. The first ISRO qualified PTH Board in India (AryaBhata, Bhaskara I,
Bhaskara II and Apple used these PCB's on Board).
8. The very first polymer thick film based additive circuits were
made in India (1978)
9. The first Chip-on-board watch module in India (with gold wire
bonding) (1979)
10. The first Digital Electronic watch module in India (1979).
11. The first solder masked professional grade PCB in India (1980).
12. The first SMOBC Board in India with Hot air levelling (1983).
13. The first small-hole PTH PCB, CNC drilled in India (1984).
14. The first Black oxided MLB in India (1984).
15. The first dry film solder masked PCB's in India. (1984).
16. The first Membrane Keyboard ever manufactured in India (1984).
17. The first UL-approved multilayer Board (6 layer) in India (1985).
18. The first Multilayer Board having 5 mil lines and 5 mil spaces
and 0.3 mm holes (1985).
19. The first military qualified multilayer boards in India with
etchback (1985).
20. The first commercially produced Hybrid Integrated circuit in
the private sector (1985) (for PCM-MUX Equipment of TRC).

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21. The first liquid photo imageable solder masked boards in India
for SMT applications (1988).
22. The first 24 layer board in India (1989).
23. The first Microassemblies involving automated SMT in India (1989).
24. The first bulk vacuum laminated, Multilayer PCB's in India (1989).
25. The first Electroless Ni + Au Board for SMT in India
26. The first to manufacture Slotmask Technology
27. The first Indian to Chair a Technical Conference outside India on
PCB's - Singapore Nepcon/Semiconductor Asia 92
28. The very first Indian patents on PCB technology (eight in numbers)
were obtained by me. These were on new methods on SMOBC Boards as
well as on a MassLam technique for MLB's, before MassLam was ever
attempted abroad (1978). Also polymer thick film circuits.
29. The first ever indigenously manufactured calculator, microcomputer,
minicomputer and mainframe computer as well as microprocessor based
equipment used PCB's manufactured with my technology.
30. First ever Indian Approval on IECQ / ISO-9000 ( Geneva )
Certification in Electronics in 1991.
31. First ever Indian Approval on DESC ( American Defence ) for any
Company in India ( 1991 ),
32. The first Heat-sink bonded MLB, the first Kevlar circuit board, C-In-C and C-Mo-C boards made
in India (1992-1994). Flexible circuit boards enabled realization of missile electronics by Bharat
Dynamics Ltd. Flexi-rigid processes were established.
33. Six Companies in Group Awarded ISO - 9001 / 9002 Certificates
from 1991-1995 : on Path to TQM, Team based BPR.
34. After my retirement, Micropack added flying probe testers, plasma etchback and obtained
approval for Flexi-rigid multilayer circuit from DESC (USA).

For more detailed information on the author please visit following pages as also the link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/209089727/Professor-Mitter-Vedu-details


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Acknowledgements:
Besides thanking all my colleagues named in the story above, I would be failing in my duty if I do not
recognize the unstinted support offered by my parents ( K.Vedachalam & M. Saraswathi) , my wife Radhika,
my children Krishna and Lakshmi, who were denied much of my time owing to my 14-16 hour preoccupation
for many years on end in the service of the printed and hybrid circuit industry. Mr R. Chellappa (of ITI) was
inducted as Secretary of IPCA and has been a valued colleague during my stewardship of the IPCA and
continued to take IPCA to greater heights thereafter as Secretary-General till after Silver-Jubilee of IPCA.
It would be incomplete if I fail to recognize and thank the late Shri SR Bommai and Shri SM Krishna
(introduced by DS Raghavan and Past President R. Venkataraman respectively) for their support during
crucial times of labour unrest in 1990 and 1992.
Last but not least, Mr N. Kumar, Vice-Chairman, Sanmar Group, has been a great source of encouragement
even as the many friends like Meenakshisundaram, Muralidharan, Narayanan and such finance
professionals.
References/Publications.
1. Photofabrication of Printed Circuit Boards, Electrical & Electronics World : Vol.III No.2 1975
2. Conception of a Multilayer PCB, Electronics For You - Sep 1976
3. Some Facts and Figures of Indian Printed Circuit, Industry - Circuit World (UK) Vol.4 No 1, 1977.
4. Flexible Printed Circuit Boards - Some myths - Electronics For You - Annual 1980
5. The Quartz Watch Era - (Chip-on-Board), Trade Post - July 1981
6. Polymer Thickfilm Hybrid Circuits, Electronics For You, Sep. 1983
7. Design & Technology of Printed Circuit Boards. Tata McGraw-Hill, Co-author, 1983.
8. A Possible Approach To Multilayer Manufacture To Enhance Solderability & Shelf Life
- Circuit World (UK) - Vol.18 No.4 1992
9. Better Solderability and Shelf Life Than SMOBC/SSC - Alternative Finish For Complex PCB's -
Proceedings - Globaltronics '92
10. Guest Editorial - Electronics Today : April, 1992
11. Guest Editorial - Circuit World (UK): March, 1993
12. Paper on "Business Process Improvement" in I.I.I.E. National Convention 1995, Awarded Certificate of Merit.
Patents granted:
150068 dt. 18.6.79 Multilevel Circuits
149895 dt. 17.8.79 Foil Lamination
149869 dt. 18.6.79 Immersion Tin-SMOBC
149796 dt. 18.6.79 Etch-Plate process
149870 dt. 18.6.79 )
149871 dt. 18.6.79 ) SMOBC Reflowed
149872 dt. 18.6.79 )
149873 dt. 18.6.79 )
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172204 dt. 13.9.89 } New processes
174070 dt. 8.3.90 } Additive & SlotMask.
Recognitions:
As Individual:
- Elected a Fellow of the Institute of Circuit Technology (UK) July 1976
(First Indian)

- Elected a Fellow of the Indian Institution of
Industrial Engineering 1991
- Elcina's Special Individual citation for Special
Achievement, 1991
- Udyog Ratan Award of the Institute of Economic
Studies, New Delhi 1987
- National Research Award, 1990 (NRDC for
Multilayer Hybrids)
- National Research Award - 1993 (NRDC for MLB's)
- Elected Fellow of the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering (1993)
- Elected Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute (UK) & CQP (1996)
- Elected Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India)(1999)
- Elected Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Circuit Technology (UK) (2001)
(First and only Indian amongst eight worldwide including Paul Eisler the inventor of printed
circuit)
- IPC (US) Life Time Achievement Award (2014)(First ever Indian)
As Company Rep:
- Elcina Award for Import Substitution 1984
for Multilayer Printed Circuit Boards
- National Award from Ministry of Industry
for Import Substitution - Ceramic hybrid Integrated circuits 1991
- Awarded IECQ and DESC recognitions for
Multilayer PCB's (also core committee member DOE/BIS for ISO 9000)
- Nominated as Chairman PCB panel Elcina, three times.
- Co-Founder IPCA (1985) and President IPCA (1989-1991)
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