State of the Art Inc. (SOTA) celebrated its 40th anniversary with an open house December 10, 2009, at the company's headquarters and manufacturing facility in central Pennsylvania.

State of the Art Inc. was founded in 1969 as a consulting business specializing in thick film technology seminars as well as other consulting services. Manufacturing began in 1972 and quickly displaced the consulting business. In 1980, SOTA developed the now industry-standard nickel barrier to virtually eliminate solder leaching and inter-metallic formation. In 1987, SOTA became the first MIL-PRF-55342 QPL qualified S-level manufacturer, and today continues to build a product line that has the lowest failure rate in the world.

State of the Art Inc. is a privately held small business with 100+ employees. SOTA's modern facility has 41,500 square feet of floor space. Automated production lines allow efficient production of large batches of components (up to 250,000 pieces per batch), while the company's extensive inventory of over 50 million chip resistors enables SOTA to provide quick delivery on small quantities. Customer service is personalized by its staff of knowledgeable and dedicated sales correspondents.