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From Silos to Systems: 2026 and Beyond
Welcome to the debut issue of I-Connect007 Magazine. This publication brings all of the pieces together from PCB design and fabrication for a closer alignment and a more integrated electronics manufacturing landscape.
Designing Proper Work-Life Balance
In this issue, we hear from designers, marketers, and business owners on how they apply their professional skills to their personal lives to build a healthier work-life balance.
Designing Proper Planes
Without planes, designers would have to create thousands of traces to accomplish the same objectives. Power planes provide low impedance and stable power, and ground planes stabilize reference voltage, improve thermal performance, and help preclude EMI issues.
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I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Top Five New Year's Resolutions for 2025
January 3, 2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
How was your week? Our family has been busy eating leftovers from the holidays. Does anyone else have a refrigerator full of cheese and salami from charcuterie boards? I just weighed myself, and I’m still under my COVID weight, woot woot. The diet starts tomorrow! At least that’s what Americans say on New Year’s Day.
But it turns out that losing weight is not the No. 1 New Year’s resolution in the United States. For this week’s list, I checked with Statista Consumer Insights, a company that tracks statistics of all kinds. Here, then, are the Top Five New Year’s resolutions made by American adults heading into 2025.
By the way, 43% of Americans do not make New Year’s resolutions. Where do you fit in here? For more stats about anything that could possibly be measured, visit www.statista.com.
5. Spend more time with family/friends
I already try to do this. (I’ve visited almost all of my cousins this year, on both sides of my family, in Florida and New Hampshire.) A lot of us travel for work quite a bit, and families get put on the back burner, especially during trade show season. A wise man once said, “You’ll never regret spending time with family.”
4. Lose weight
I thought this would have been No. 1. I think a lot of us have tried and failed to lose weight over multiple New Years, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s dropped down a tad. But I’ve been seeing a ton of online ads for diets since Christmas “vacation” started a few weeks ago. I’ll be traveling a few times in January, so this is a moot point. When I’m on the road, I tend to “eat like a campground raccoon,” as comedian Kyle Kinane once said.
3. Exercise more
This is one of mine. I have a “new to me” Nautilus elliptical, and I’ve been hitting that fairly often. I’m still bullish about this crazy thing. The first five to 10 minutes on an elliptical are great, because there’s no impact and it feels like you’re just floating. But by 15 minutes in, you really start to feel it, and soon you’re making plans to jump off and go back to watching “The Bear.”
2. Eat healthier
This ties in with losing weight. I’ve been making an effort to read the ingredients in everything I buy, and almost everything that’s pre-packaged is high in salt and/or fat. If I find something that’s low in fat, then the salt content is usually through the roof. So I’ve been cooking a lot of meals from scratch, because that’s the only way to really eat healthy. Is this one of your resolutions?
1. Save more money
This is a big one for all of us, I imagine. Most of us are closer to retirement than we’d like to admit, and none of us want to be waiting on a check each month as we whittle on the front porch in a paisley cardigan. So we put money into Roths and non-Roths, and we listen to our “retirement guy” when he says, “Hey, this one fund is underperforming. Let’s put that money in this other fund.” He was in my band for years, so he has my best interests in mind. Right?
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High-Tech Hill in Lithuania: Europe’s PCB Comeback
02/12/2026 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007 MagazineTLT Manufacturing, part of the Teltonika group, is assembling something Europe hasn’t seen in decades: a fully integrated electronics manufacturing hub in Vilnius, Lithuania. Last September, TLT officially opened High-Tech Hill, its new technology campus, simultaneously launching four facilities: two EMS plants, a large greenfield PCB fabrication plant, and a plastic injection molding operation. This move brings design, tooling, production, and full manufacturing services under one roof.
EMS Leadership Summit: A Smarter Way to Gather EMS Leaders
02/11/2026 | Nolan Johnson, SMT007 MagazineMark Wolfe is a career EMS and electronics expert, whose leadership has helped expand and improve the EMS Leadership Summit at APEX EXPO. Last year’s event received a huge approval rating from attendees: a whopping 96% said they’d be back. Not content to rest on those laurels, Mark and his team have put together a program that preserves the Summit’s strengths while finding ways to improve. In this interview, Mark makes a strong argument why EMS leadership at all levels should take a day to examine the wider picture of our industry.
The Right Approach: Reflections on 50 Years in the Business, Part 1
02/10/2026 | Steve Williams -- Column: The Right ApproachLast September and October, I wrote a two-part column, "Electro-Tek: A Williams Family Legacy Part 1" and "Electro-Tek: A Williams Family Legacy Part 2," which prompted me to reflect on the changes I have witnessed over the past 50 years in the PCB and broader electronics industry. The prior articles focused on the family business and my dad, so a follow-up on my journey is a logical next step. In this new three part series, I will be looking back as 2026 marks my 50th year in the business, beginning with the first 22 years of my career manufacturing PCBs.
The Chemical Connection: Changes and Challenges Ahead in PCB Fabrication
02/09/2026 | Don Ball -- Column: The Chemical ConnectionWhat are the most influential changes in PCB fabrication in the next five years? Throughout my many years in the PCB industry, I have witnessed numerous predictions about the industry's future, as well as the introduction of alternative processes that promised to revolutionize the industry. Most of the more radical predictions have fallen by the wayside, and those alternative processes have failed to produce the predicted results, becoming niche processes at best.
Is Washington Ready to Get Serious About PCBs?
01/27/2026 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007David Schild, executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA), leads an organization focused on the domestic manufacture of PCBs and substrates to support America’s critical microelectronics supply. In part one of this interview, he reflects on how a “perfect storm” during the COVID-19 pandemic actually ignited the conversation that has allowed PCBAA to flourish: Years of advocacy, the shock of COVID-era supply chain disruptions, and the long road to the CHIPS Act have helped to reshape the federal mindset on industrial policy.