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Nolan’s Notes: Tariffs, Technologies, and Optimization

Last month, SMT007 Magazine spotlighted India, and boy, did we pick a good time to do so. Tariff and trade news involving India was breaking like a storm surge. The U.S. tariffs shifted India from one of the most favorable trade agreements to the least favorable.

Electronics continue to be exempt for the time being, but lest you think that we’re free and clear because we manufacture electronics, steel and aluminum are specifically called out at the 50% tariff levels. Furthermore, finished goods that contain a “significant” amount of steel or aluminum are subject to a pro-rated tariff based on the amount of steel or aluminum in the product. In other words, if our electronics-based finished goods contain enough steel or aluminum, we could face a tariff.

This tactic involves a great deal of bureaucratic hoop-jumping, of course, which adds cost to the product. I’ve continued to follow the Indian market’s responses to the tariff news, and it should come as no surprise that Indian businesses are responding by developing business relationships with alternative, non-U.S. supply chains where the barriers are much lower.

They say it will make it very difficult to maintain the working relationships we’ve all cultivated over the last 40 years. Once Indian producers have new customers, will they wish to return to their U.S. relationships? Once U.S. companies have rebuilt their supply chains under these restrictions, will they be motivated to switch back? Based on what I’m seeing, India is not waiting to see if the Trump administration changes its mind.

Copper isn’t immune either, with a 50% global tariff on copper by the U.S. There are exclusions depending upon the form the copper takes, but copper foil is not an excluded item, and copper is already a major raw material cost for PCB fabrication. For example, a typical FR-4 PCB has about 20% of its cost tied up in copper; heavy copper boards can be closer to 40%. The Global Electronics Association estimates that this will translate to a COGS increase ranging from 6–30% depending on how much copper is required. To learn more about the effect these global tariffs will have on the electronics industry, I recommend reading the Association’s report, “Copper Tariffs and the Hidden Costs to U.S. Electronics Manufacturing.”

In our podcast series, “On the Line With...,” we’ve discussed emerging fabrication technologies such as semi-additive and additive PCB fabrication with company representatives from MKS and American Standard Circuits. ASC is leading the way in using UHDI in the open market, and MKS’ “Optimize the Interconnect” concept showcases how to squeeze reliability out of cutting-edge PCB designs.

Until this year, the key market drivers for additive manufacturing—and the advent of ultra HDI manufacturing—have been component sizes and circuit density requirements, along with high signal integrity and related performance requirements. Could these tariffs also contribute to the accelerated adoption of additive fabrication, with its much-reduced appetite for copper up front? That remains to be seen, and I encourage you to follow the podcasts and subscribe to PCB007 Magazine to keep informed.

In SMT007 Magazine this month, we investigate business operations software, and how best to achieve the necessary integrations. This is not a simple task. Some MES and ERP software understand the uniqueness of electronics assembly more or less out of the box, but to be fully functional, many will require significant customization and API work. A new report from the Global Electronics Association on operations software addresses the tools EMS companies are using, what they are moving to, and the challenges of completing that move. Our interview with Industry Intelligence Director Thiago Guimaraes sheds additional light on the process and insights in the report.

His work begs the question: How can integration headaches be minimized or avoided? For more insight, we turned to Cogiscan and Critical Manufacturing to provide their perspectives. Both firms specialize in electronics manufacturing and share their best advice for a successful integration, and I’m providing an excerpt from Cogiscan’s book on data analysis, The Printed Circuit Assembler’s Guide to Factory Analytics.

The Association’s survey report also highlights quoting and sales support software as some of the highest-return-on-investment tools. That sent me on a research dive into sales software tools, and you’ll find my report in this issue as well.

Stan Rak continues his series on EV technologies and trends, Akrometrix’s Neil Hubble talks about pushing boundaries in measuring board warpage, and we introduce Sanjeev Mane with an article on sensors. Our columnists this month include Dr. Jennie Hwang, discussing the foundations of artificial intelligence, and Nash Bell gets detailed about BGA reballing.

We’re always looking for new topics to help move forward the conversation in the industry, and the best topics always come from conversations with you.What are your struggles and successes? Let us know what’s up.

This column originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of SMT007 Magazine.