Solder has been a loyal servant of the electronics manufacturing industry for years; however, like any aging servant, the efficacy of solder has been waning as the industry looks to make products increasingly dense. Solder has always been the weak link in the electronics manufacturing process, where a substantial number of defects are created and solder joints remain the most common site of failure in electronic systems. With that in mind, an alternative approach to manufacturing electronic assemblies without the use of solder is discussed in this short book. In most fundamental terms, the process is one where, instead of building PCBs and placing and soldering components to them, a component board is assembled and the terminations on the components are interconnected using traditional PCB processes and bypassing, completely, the high-temperature soldering process. The reader will be shown the numerous prospective advantages and benefits--economic, technical and environmental--of this important alternative approach, including rapid prototyping, which was first suggested 10 years ago and is just now beginning to be appreciated.