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Marcy’s Musings: From Business Diversification to Designing Display Electronics

I love this time of year. Aside from summer, I appreciate the natural pause from the busyness of trade shows, conferences, airport delays, and back-to-back Teams meetings. Colleagues become a bit harder to reach as family vacations are prioritized, and we take focus off work for a little while. But no matter the season, the accelerated pace of technological advancement doesn’t actually slow down. In this issue, we use this pause to look inward and forward.

In PCB fabrication, we examine the need for business diversification, especially for bare board fabricators in the U.S., where there are fewer than 150 shops, and technology expansion demands significant CapEx investment. The right decision to diversify or double down on what you already have always comes down to a convergence of issues.

Ray Cottrell of Flexible Circuit Technologies (FCT) speaks with authority on this topic. He joined FCT when president and founder Troy Koopman chose to expand the assembly operations, and he provides foundational tenets for what successful diversification requires. Dan Beaulieu, who’s been working with PCB companies for decades, shares insight into what diversification might look like and the important steps on how to begin.

Our columnists also take on this subject. Steve Williams harkens back to his master’s degree dissertation on vertical integration and business diversification for U.S. PCB fabrication. Happy Holden approaches competing in this complex global environment from a slightly different perspective, reinforcing the critical need for fabricators not to delay automation. Don Ball points out the very cyclical nature of the advice to diversify. “The reasons for diversification or de-diversification during economic uncertainty are not unsound, but not for everyone,” he writes.

In PCB design, we explore how display electronics, specifically LED displays, change a designer’s approach. Kelly Dack states, “Displays and illuminated human-machine interfaces have become essential components of modern electronic systems. From aircraft cockpits and mission-control displays to medical equipment, industrial controls, and consumer devices, we depend on these visual interfaces to interact with technology.” Kristin Moyer defines the different types of display technology and breaks down some of the design “gotchas” that one inevitably faces. John Watson writes, “The display becomes the center of the interaction, and the PCB is no longer hidden inside the product; it becomes the foundation of what the user sees and feels.” Stephen Chavez examines the uniqueness of designing for LED display electronics, observing that it is one of the only times you are “engineering for perception.” He rightly points out that the responsibility of meeting this challenge lies equally with both design and manufacturing. Joe Fjelstad looks at the past and future of LED technology and offers a solution that might help designers and manufacturers achieve greater success.

Columnist Brian Buyea of Remtec talks about the importance of design for assembly, often an afterthought in the process. Anaya Vardya writes about the integration of smart textiles with flexible PCBs, while Michael Carano examines surface-finish choices for high-frequency 5G and 6G applications and extols the virtues of ISIG. We also include the second part of our discussion on every layer interconnect (ELIC).

In other news, Summit Interconnect celebrates 10 years, and my interview with Shane Whiteside and Gerry Partida takes us through the milestones that got them to where they are today. PCBAA just celebrated its five-year anniversary, and looks back at its impressive growth and milestones over that time. The EIPC Summer Conference took place last month, and we provide links to some of the coverage. Sean Patterson continues his “how-to” guide for the PCB fabricator to start implementing AI into his operation, and the Global Electronics Association released the IPC Q2 2026 standards update.

So, here’s to the summer slowdown. Grab that icy cold glass of lemonade, put your feet up, and read on.

This column originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of I-Connect007 Magazine.