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July 7th, 2026
News and Resources for PCB Design, Fab and Assembly Professionals Subscribe •  Advertise •  PCD&F •  Circuits Assembly •  Tell A Friend
THE LEAD

Itera CEO AJ Cooper will headline PCB West 2026 with a keynote exploring how reconfigurable fluid circuit boards could reshape AI hardware development. Solstice Advanced Materials has agreed to acquire Element Solutions in a $14B transaction.

TECH NEWS

AJ Cooper, CEO and cofounder of Itera, will keynote PCB West on Sept. 30, discussing the company's self-reconfiguring "fluid" PCB technology and its potential to accelerate AI hardware development by enabling circuit boards to be rewired digitally in real time.

Nvidia has reportedly delayed the launch of its Kyber NVL144 AI rack until 2028 after manufacturing challenges with its 78-layer PCB midplane hindered production.

Amtech Electrocircuits has launched First Article, an online publication focused on practical AI applications for hardware development.

Innox Advanced Materials is advancing development of its build-up film (BF) for semiconductor package substrates.

Tagarno releases T50 firmware version 1.9.

PCEA announced a dedicated electronics assembly program for PCB West 2026, featuring 10 technical sessions on solder paste, placement, reflow, stencil design and cleaning.

Registration is open for PCB West 2026, which will feature more than 120 hours of PCB design and assembly training this September in Santa Clara.

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.

BOARD BUYING
Beating the NRE Game: Changing Designs Without Paying Tooling
Knowing which PCB specification changes require new tooling and which do not can help designers and buyers reduce nonrecurring engineering costs while avoiding unnecessary delays.

GREG PAPANDREW

Greg Papandrew





















BUSINESS NEWS

Solstice Advanced Materials has agreed to acquire Element Solutions in a $14B transaction.

Global semiconductor sales reached a record $120B in May, rising 9 percent month-over-month and 104 percent year-over-year.

Samsung is expected to report a record $56B in second-quarter operating profit, up roughly 18-fold year-over-year.

Asahi Kasei has expanded dry film photoresist production in Taiwan with a new slitting facility.

SEMI and TechSearch International have expanded the 2026 Worldwide Assembly & Test Facility Database to more than 820 back-end manufacturing sites.

SmarTsol Technologies and iRayple partner to expand autonomous mobile robot and machine vision solutions.

Koh Young America has promoted Heriberto Cuevas to country manager for Mexico and South America.

AIM Solder has promoted David Solis to senior technical applications and laboratory support engineer.

Celestica has appointed Steven Dorwart president of its connectivity and cloud solutions.

BEST PRACTICES
When the BoM Breaks the Design: Why Supply Chain Resilience Starts at the Engineer’s Desk
Supply chain disruptions may be inevitable, but the ability to design around them doesn’t have to be an afterthought.

STEPHEN V. CHAVEZ

Stephen V. Chavez






















TECHNICAL ARTICLES

Reflow AI – Before There was Artificial Intelligence
PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY


AI-Enabled RFIC
2026 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)


I Met With China’s Top AI Experts. They’re Freaking Out, Too
Wired


EVENTS

Sept. 4, 11, 18, 25, Oct. 9: Certified Printed Circuit Design Training Online
Sept. 28-Oct. 2: Certified Printed Circuit Design Training Santa Clara, CA
Sept. 29-Oct. 2: PCB West 2026Santa Clara, CA
Oct. 16, 23, 30, Nov. 6, 13: Certified Printed Circuit Design Training Online
Feb. 17-19, 2027: Nepcon Japan Tokyo


 

BOOK-TO-BILLS/MARKET TRENDS
             May Trend
EMS 1.36 Flat
Semiconductors         104% Up
PCBs 1.60 Up
Component Sales Sentiment 146.6 Flat
Changes are year-over-year.    

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ABOUT

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.


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