A Progress Report: Investing in U.S. PCB Fabricators

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

In the geopolitical arena, the supply chain lessons learned during the pandemic continue to be addressed with long-range plans as well as short-term stopgaps. In this conversation, David Schild, executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA), provides a progress update on the U.S. CHIPS Act, and some of the fan-out dynamics already playing out. As David explains, there is new investment in PCB fabrication that has nothing to do with the CHIPS Act.

Nolan Johnson: David, we’ve recently seen investment news for Calumet Electronics and TTM. In Calumet’s case, the cash is coming from DoD and the state of Michigan; in TTM’s case, it’s an internally funded project. What is the larger story here?

David Schild: This is a signal that the industry is willing to put its money where its mouth is, and that governments at both the state and federal level want to help. I’m very happy to see this, but it underscores that this is just two companies and millions of dollars, when we need to be talking about dozens of companies and billions of dollars.

We’re thrilled that Calumet has announced funding from both the state of Michigan and the Department of Defense to expand their organic substrate capabilities, and DoD-specific capabilities in the state of Michigan. TTM has announced a greenfield initiative to produce UHDI PCBs adjacent to its existing Syracuse facility. The industry is not sitting still. We're willing to actually invest dollars, but it won’t put our manufacturing in a competitive position until we have government support.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the December 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.