The Chemical Connection: When History Repeats Itself on Diversification
It’s Only Common Sense: AI Is Accelerating the Electronics Industry
Punching Out: M&A Deals in North American PCB and EMS Sectors for the First Half of 2026
It’s a mixed bag of news this week. I’ll start with business, where Brazil hosted COP30, a climate conference aimed at implementing previously agreed-upon measures to mitigate climate change and global warming. In China, manufacturing output in October showed a decline in orders, and starting Nov. 1, its long-held gold tax exemption was significantly reduced from 13 to 6%. Massive private venture capital funding is focused on AI, and there’s large-scale capital investment in infrastructure worldwide, also linked to the growth of AI, data centers, and energy. This is important because those large-scale investments are indicators of the geography of critical supply chain hubs.
In electronics industry news, my picks start with Pete Starkey’s review of EIPC’s latest Technology Snapshot webinar. With all eyes on Europe as a pressure lever for ESG worldwide, Pete’s coverage is a must-read. Next, I want you to check out the new column by Leo Lambert on EPTAC, who provides a solid and complete overview of UHDI from concept to assembly.
Kelly Dack is on my radar this week with a column focused on power distribution in PCB design, where he declares that it may be time to “Denounce the Ounce.” I am highlighting Trendforce’s report, which indicates that major CSP providers will increase overall CapEx spending in 2025 and 2026, affecting everything, both upstream and downstream, in electronics and manufacturing. Finally, be sure to listen to my SMTAI interview with Dr. Adam Klett of Kyzen, who talk about cleaning—and I mean really, really clean.
EIPC Technical Snapshot: Sustainability in Electronics Manufacturing
Published November 6
No one covers an event (or webinar) like Pete Starkey, so publishing his review of the EIPC’s 24th annual Technical Snapshot webinar focused on sustainability was a real bonus. The event was kicked off by Liisa Hakola, senior scientist and senior project manager at VTT Technical Research Center in Finland who discussed her research and ten pilot projects that address circular electronic devices, sustainable manufacturing for electronics, and environmentally compatible single-use electronics. Elephantech’s cutting edge technology was also highlighted. (Teaser to stay tuned for an I-Connect007 VOI podcast with Elephantech in the next AEPD.)
Learning With Leo: UHDI—The Next Leap in PCB Manufacturing
Published November 5
Learning with Leo—if the title doesn’t grab your attention, the content should. As EPTAC’s technical director, Leo lays out the case for UHDI technology clearly, starting from when HP first introduced HDI technology in 1982 to today, where “the convergence of IC substrates and system-level PCBs has accelerated the adoption of UHDI.” Taking you through from concept and context to instrumental shifts in PCB manufacturing and assembling (soldering) such devices, he substantiates the truth that “UHDI technology is redefining the future of PCB manufacturing and assembly.” Indeed.
Target Condition: Distribution of Power—Denounce the Ounce
November 5
“There’s a debilitating loyalty lingering in the design community,” says Kelly Dack as he informs and entertains in his latest Target Condition column. Calling out this outdated but deeply entrenched mode of specifying copper weight, Kelly points PCB designers to more appropriate and meaningful units of measure such as thickness tolerance not the ounces of copper on layers within your stack up, which is something that will immediately result in a call from the fab shop building your design for clarification, “because a PCB CAM engineer must know whether the designer made important calculations using base or finished copper thickness values.” If you are a PCB designer or a fabricator thankful for even one less engineering query, this is a must-read.
TrendForce announced its CapEx forecast this week, stating that North American capital spending will go from its original 61% forecast to 65% for NA cloud service providers (CSP), such as Google, AWS, Microsoft and Meta, most of whom increased their CapEx projections for 2025 and 2026. This is, of course, a huge market indicator and foundational for the tremendous amount of venture capital investment related to AI. “TrendForce indicates that this recent wave of CapEx expansion will considerably increase demand for AI servers, subsequently driving growth throughout the supply chain. This encompasses upstream components like GPUs/ASICs, memory, and packaging materials, as well as downstream areas such as liquid cooling modules, power systems, and ODM integration.”
KYZEN Corporation focuses on precision cleaning chemistries for various industries, prioritizing environmental responsibility. In this audio interview, Dr. Adam Klett discusses the role of cleaning in electronics manufacturing, particularly in UHDI technology, where cleanliness significantly impacts signal integrity. Material compatibility and sustainability are also key factors in developing new cleaning chemistries that protect electronic components and meet regulatory standards.
