The US has renewed tariff exclusions on select China-sourced industrial equipment, even as Elon Musk moves to construct a domestic semiconductor chain to reduce reliance on external foundries for AI and space-grade silicon.

Industry leaders stressed that zero-defect manufacturing in electronics will require smarter material selection, tighter DfM discipline and deeper localization across PCB and assembly supply chains.

Researchers demonstrated a biodegradable silver conductive ink for flexible and in-mold electronics, achieving 9.39µΩ·cm resistivity after photonic curing and maintaining conductivity after 5,000 bends.

At MECES 2025 in Dubai, nearly 300 Chinese electronics manufacturers showcased AI-enabled devices and smart-home systems, signalling rising demand for components, connectivity hardware and PCB-rich consumer platforms across the Middle East market.

A new miniature RF control module for gate-defined quantum dot qubits integrates 48 low-pass DC bias lines, 28 DC/RF lines and eight microwave channels up to 6GHz.

A developer has ported DOOM into the KiCad PCB editor, rendering gameplay as fabricatable board-layout frames where walls become traces.

A damaged Sharp PC-G801 was rebuilt with a custom PCB and Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, turning the 1988 pocket computer into a portable Linux machine with keypad interface.

PCEA has issued a call for abstracts for PCB West 2026, with submissions due January 23, 2026.

PCB West 2026 will take place Sept. 29–Oct. 2 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, with booth registration now open for returning exhibitors.

Entries for Circuits Assembly's 2026 NPI Awards, recognizing innovations in electronics assembly equipment, material and software, are due Dec. 15.

Looking for networking opportunities? Join the PCEA Discord server, bringing together engineers and designers from around the world on a private channel for discussing technical questions and career opportunities.

Wingtech is demanding a Dutch court restore its control of Nexperia.

The US has extended tariff exclusions for another year on select China-origin industrial goods including solar manufacturing equipment.

Elon Musk is assembling a US-based semiconductor chain spanning PCBs, advanced packaging and a planned high-volume wafer fab, positioning Tesla and SpaceX to reduce reliance on external foundries for AI and satellite chip production.

Copper futures on the London Metal Exchange hit a fresh record above $11,200 a metric ton last week, as tight supply, upbeat demand signals, and a weaker dollar pushed the metal higher.

Vietnam’s electronics exports hit nearly $143B year-to-date, with computer, components and device shipments surging 48.3 percent.

Swiss EMS Cicor Group will expand production at its Newport, Wales facility after securing a five-year aerospace and defense contract.

Kaynes Technology is pushing ahead with a $1 billion expansion that includes a new OSAT facility in Gujarat and a PCB plant in Tamil Nadu.

Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) momentum could pay off for printed circuit board suppliers such as TTM Technologies, Unimicron and Isu Petasys.

Singapore’s factory output accelerated in October, with the electronics sector swelling more than 26 percent.

The Analysis of Variance: Drawing Conclusions from Data that are Correct, Unambiguous and Defensible
PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY

Multi-scale Alignment Detection Transformer for PCB Defect Detection with Enhanced Cross-scale Feature Fusion
Measurement Science and Technology

Electromigration in Eutectic Gold-Tin (80Au20Sn-wt%) Solder Joints
Journal of Electronic Materials

EVENTS

PCB Update is a digital newsletter for PCB design, fabrication and assembly professionals, brought to you by Printed Circuit Engineering Association™. E-mail industry press releases or links to the editors of CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY or PCD&F: pr@pcea.net.