I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

There is, it seems, a re-ordering of the economic landscape underway at all levels of the organizational structure. While not on this week’s top five, Pete Starkey’s report from the EIPC Technical Snapshot carries this headline: “Thinking Differently In a Post-Pandemic World.”  Quoting Pete’s report:

“Dr. Shiuh-Kao Chiang, managing partner at Prismark, gave an update on the PCB market and the outlook for the future. ‘PCB is acknowledged as a key component of the electronics system, and it’s still a very dynamic industry… We still see lots of uncertainty; we still see surprises; we still see challenges. It has gone through several different phases since 2020. Right now, the electronics industry is probably in the middle of second phase of the pandemic period—not completely out of it yet, but seeing some signs of recovery.”

The re-ordering runs the gamut from macro to micro. Employees, for example, are making career moves that are at least sideways, often upward, to fill job vacancies and to reconfigure their work/life balance based on what they learned during the pandemic. Likewise, entire markets are shifting in a global sense to improve the resilience of the supply chain. In the middle, some companies are choosing this opportunity to invest in new capabilities for new markets and greater market share (is yours?) It’s as if one game of economic mah jong has just ended and now the same tiles are being stirred into a new order for the next round. It’ll be the same, but different; or is it different, but the same?

We can see these shifts in this week’s top five: a high profile surprise merger between Autodesk and Altium, which had been in the works, resolved this week; financial news from fabs and assemblers around the globe is reporting strong bookings and sales as the industry bounces back from pandemic-related shutdowns; component demands continue to exert pull pressures on the semiconductor suppliers, keeping the market (overly?) competitive pricewise. The tiles are indeed being stirred. Which pieces will you be dealt?

Autodesk Terminates Acquisition Discussions with Altium 
Published July 21

Autodesk has been developing their presence in EDA tools for some time now—EAGLE is now an Autodesk tool, for example. While a move to bring Altium’s suite of tools and solutions into the Autodesk fold might be a good strategic move for Autodesk, it seems Altium leadership feels otherwise. 

Feeling the Supply Chain Squeeze 
Published July 19 

I spoke with Joe D’Ambrisi of MacDermid Alpha to gain insight into what he’s seeing in the market from his perspective as a specialty chemicals and materials provider. For more reporting on price increases and supply chain pressures, check out the entire July 2021 issue of PCB007. 

Electronic System Design Industry Reports 17% Revenue Growth in Q1 2021 
Published July 16 

This quote from the press release sums it up nicely, “The industry reported substantial, double-digit year-over-year revenue growth for Q1 2021. All product categories significantly contributed, with double-digit growth in the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), IC Physical Design and Verification, Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module (PCB and MCM), and Semiconductor IP (SIP) segments.” 

The Roadmap to the Digital Thread Across the Product Lifecycle 
Published July 16 

In July 2020, SAP and Siemens announced a strategic partnership to deliver a digital thread that bridges engineering, manufacturing, and business. This report shares additional details on the roadmap to achieve the goals of this partnership. 

Anaya Vardya Discusses ASC’s Move into Additive Processes 
Published July 20 

Andy Shaughnessy brings us an interview from the show floor at the International Microwave Symposium recently held in Atlanta, Georgia. Andy talks with ASC President Anaya Vardya about additive and semi-additive processes.