Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Designers

An Austrian mechanical engineer named Paul Eisler is credited with inventing the first printed circuit board in the 1930s—although it took many years for him to receive credit for his groundbreaking invention.

In the early 1940s, the U.S. military began widespread use of printed circuit boards in response to challenges it faced manufacturing reliable proximity fuses for anti-aircraft missiles. “Since the [PCB] system worked so well, guided missiles, miniaturized radios, switchboards for telephone networks, radio receivers, TV sets, and computers followed soon after,” according to AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik, a supplier of high-end PCBs and integrated circuit substrates. Scientists, engineers, and designers continued to improve PCBs during the following decades. Today, printed circuit boards are key components in electronic devices. “They are used in nearly every electronic device manufactured across the world, from consumer products to medical devices, automobiles, advanced manufacturing equipment and much more,” according to the Indiana Institute of Technology.