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Beyond the Rulebook
What happens when the rule book is no longer useful, or worse, was never written in the first place? In today’s fast-moving electronics landscape, we’re increasingly asked to design and build what has no precedent, no proven path, and no tidy checklist to follow. This is where “Design for Invention” begins.
March Madness
From the growing role of AI in design tools to the challenge of managing cumulative tolerances, these articles in this issue examine the technical details, design choices, and manufacturing considerations that determine whether a board works as intended.
Looking Forward to APEX EXPO 2026
I-Connect007 Magazine previews APEX EXPO 2026, covering everything from the show floor to the technical conference. For PCB designers, we move past the dreaded auto-router and spotlight AI design tools that actually matter.
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Ichia Swings to Profit in Q2 2018
July 17, 2018 | DigitimesEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Taiwan-based Ichia Technologies, which manufactures flexible PCBs as well as mechanical integrated components, has reported pre-tax profits of NT$97 million ($3.2 billion) for the second quarter of 2018 following five straight quarters of losses, according to Digitimes. However, the company generated pre-tax losses of NT$26 million in the first half of 2018.
Ichia saw its June revenues fall 10% sequentially to NT$573 million due mainly to a temporary shutdown of part of its production lines in Suzhou, China, where the Suzhou Environmental Protection Bureau has launched a probe into Ichia’s local plant following accusations that it discharged polluted wastewater, and ordered it improve its wastewater processing as soon as possible. The probe, which took place between May 23 and June 27, has prompted Ichia to suspend part of its etching and copper plating production lines.
Digitimes quoted Ichia CEO Larry Sun as saying that the incident, which already affected Ichia's June revenues, will continue to impact the company's revenues in July. The Suzhou plant is expected to return to full capacity later in July.
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Institute of Circuit Technology Spring Seminar 2026: A Bright Future in Europe
04/23/2026 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007Through the leafy lanes and spring flowers of Warwickshire and back to Meridan, the traditional centre of England, and now officially part of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the county of the West Midlands, I attended the Annual General Meeting and Spring Seminar of the Institute of Circuit Technology (ICT) on April 14. Out of the AGM came notable changes in leadership at the top of the Institute: the retirement of Mat Beadel as chair and Emma Hudson as technical director. Effective May 1, Steve Driver is the new chair, and Alun Morgan is the new technical director.
Henger Targets AI PCB Challenges With Advanced Plasma Technology
04/02/2026 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamHenger is pushing the boundaries of PCB manufacturing with its dynamic, next-generation plasma technology, purpose-built for the demands of AI-driven electronics. As designs move toward higher density, faster speeds, and advanced materials like M9 laminates, Henger’s innovative plasma systems deliver precise, uniform, and energy-efficient processing. In this interview, company leaders, Zhiquang Li and Ping Tang discuss how their cutting-edge solutions are redefining cleaning, surface activation, and process control—positioning plasma technology as a critical enabler of reliability and performance in the rapidly evolving AI hardware landscape.
New, Greener Solutions for Etch: Novel Copper Extraction
03/30/2026 | Richard Nichols, GreenSource Engineering“Novel” is a typical marketing phrase that implies new and unique, but often “novel” actually means an established technology being applied to a new field or application. This, in turn, is often driven by newly relevant external motivation. GreenSource has been working on just such a solution: novel copper extraction, offering a better and greener alternative to traditional LLE control systems for cupric chloride etch.
Connect the Dots: Designing for the Future of Manufacturing Reality—Strip-Etch-Strip
02/19/2026 | Matt Stevenson -- Column: Connect the DotsThe demand for ultra-high density interconnect (UHDI) PCBs is growing as electronic devices become increasingly advanced. That means we will be creating more designs that need to align with the reality of manufacturing UHDI boards. My last column on this subject focused on plating, and we are ready to discuss the strip-etch-strip (SES) process. With UHDI boards, footprints are smaller and tolerances are tighter. Your big design challenge associated with the SES process involves trace width and spacing control. The etching process can undercut traces and alter their final size.
PCBAIR Upgrades Heavy-Copper PCBs to Solve AI Thermal Bottlenecks
01/20/2026 | PRNewswireAs computational demands for AI models surge, the hardware powering them faces a critical physical limitation: thermal management.