Element Solutions, Solstice Terminate Merger Agreement

MIAMI – Element Solutions and Solstice Advanced Materials have mutually terminated their proposed merger following shareholder feedback and discussions between the companies.

The companies’ boards determined that operating as separate businesses would better serve their respective shareholders. Neither company will make a termination payment under the agreement.

Element Solutions said it will continue its strategy centered on operational execution, capital allocation and product development. The company supplies specialty chemicals for semiconductor fabrication, computing, automotive, communications, aerospace and industrial applications.End of article content 

Calumet Opens $55M Organic Substrate Facility

CALUMET, MI – Calumet Electronics has opened its $54.7 million Center for Advanced Substrate Technology, a panel-level organic substrate manufacturing facility that the company says is the first dedicated operation of its kind in the United States.

The facility includes Class 1000 cleanrooms and combines semi-additive processing and embedded trace technologies on a single platform. It will produce advanced substrates for radar, electronic warfare, AI computing and 5G/6G communications.

The project was developed with more than 25 industry, government and education partners and is intended to expand domestic substrate production while reducing reliance on overseas suppliers.End of article content 

ICTC Philippines Opens Manufacturing Facility in Laguna

BIÑAN, PHILIPPINES – Interconnect Cable Technologies Corporation has opened a manufacturing facility in Laguna Technopark to expand its electronics manufacturing capacity in the Philippines.

ICTC Philippines provides cable and wire harness assembly, PCB assembly, box-build testing and product integration services for commercial and industrial applications. The facility will provide additional capacity and resources as customer requirements expand.

SEL to Invest $150M in Idaho Manufacturing Plant

NAMPA, ID – Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories plans to invest more than $150 million in a 103,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing plant in Nampa, with operations scheduled to begin in 2027.

The company expects the facility to create approximately 250 jobs initially while increasing production capacity and shortening lead times for products used to protect electrical grids and improve power-system reliability.

The Nampa operation will join SEL’s existing Idaho manufacturing facilities in Lewiston and Moscow and represents the company’s fourth major manufacturing expansion in two years.End of article content 

Ondas Acquires Gate, Bron Technologies for $205M

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – Ondas has acquired Gate Technologies and Bron Technologies for $205 million, expanding its electronic safe-and-arm and fuzing capabilities for defense applications.

Gate develops electronic safe-and-arm devices and fuzing technologies for UAVs, loitering munitions, missiles and rockets. Bron adds manufacturing and certification operations in Poland, giving the combined business a NATO-based production presence in Europe.

Ondas expects the acquired businesses to generate $65 million in revenue in 2026 and $180 million in 2028. The agreement includes up to an additional $185 million in performance-based consideration tied to financial targets through 2028.End of article content 

Syrma SGS, Elemaster Form India Manufacturing JV

BENGALURU, INDIA – Syrma SGS Technologies and Elemaster have formed a joint venture to establish an electronics manufacturing operation in Bengaluru.

The venture, Syrma SGS Elemaster Pvt. Ltd., will operate a 20,000-sq.-ft. facility in the Bommasandra Industrial Area with SMT, through-hole technology and box-build assembly lines.

Flex to Acquire EPC Power for $4.4B

AUSTIN, TX – Flex has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire EPC Power for $4.4 billion, adding power-conversion technologies for AI data centers, energy storage and grid applications.

EPC Power develops hardware, software and control systems supporting rectifiers, DC-DC conversion and next-generation 800V data-center architectures. The company has more than 15GW deployed across 62 countries and expects US manufacturing capacity to exceed 30GW in 2027.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals. EPC Power will join Flex’s Cloud and Power Infrastructure segment, which Flex plans to separate into an independent publicly traded company in early 2027.End of article content 

Microscreen Opens Connecticut SMT Stencil Facility

OXFORD, CT – Microscreen has opened an 8,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Oxford to expand SMT solder stencil production and service capabilities in the northeastern United States.

The facility offers 24-hour stencil turnaround and places customers from Maine to Philadelphia within one-day ground shipping range. Equipment includes a Tannlin T11 laser capable of cutting approximately 10,000 to 15,000 apertures per hour and a Watt Laser SE12 Pro for inspection, step welding and aperture measurement.

Kitron Plans New Denmark Manufacturing Facility

HORSENS, DENMARK – Kitron plans to build an 8,850-sq.-m. electronics manufacturing facility in Horsens to support anticipated growth and demand for localized production.

The company-owned plant will replace Kitron’s existing Horsens operation and feature a manufacturing layout designed to improve production efficiency and workflows for regulated and high-reliability markets.

Construction is expected to begin in January 2027, with operations scheduled to start in early 2028. Kitron plans to increase staffing at the location from approximately 150 to 250 employees once the plant is fully utilized.End of article content 

TFE Acquires Tekena USA

SCHAUMBURG, IL – TFE has acquired Tekena USA, expanding its North American portfolio of particle-removal and surface-cleaning technologies for precision manufacturing.

The acquisition adds sheet and web cleaning systems, contact-cleaning equipment, adhesive rolls, manual products, consumables and related services. The technologies remove dust, fibers and other contaminants that can affect product quality, process consistency and yield.

Applications include PCB manufacturing, SMT, coating, lamination, battery production, printing and solar manufacturing. Tekena customers and distributors will receive continued product and technical support through TFE’s existing teams.End of article content 

MBK, FormFactor Complete $661M FICT Acquisition

LIVERMORE, CA – A consortium led by MBK Partners has completed its acquisition of Japanese PCB manufacturer FICT from Advantage Partners in a transaction valued at approximately $661 million.

MBK acquired an 80% interest in FICT, while FormFactor invested approximately $60 million. Formerly a Fujitsu subsidiary, FICT manufactures high-density printed circuit boards for high-speed data transmission, semiconductor and high-performance computing applications.

The investors expect FICT to benefit from increasing demand for AI data centers, advanced packaging and high-speed communications. FormFactor said the investment will also secure access to technologies used in advanced probe cards.End of article content 

NCAB Expands into Australia with IMP Acquisition

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – NCAB Group has agreed to acquire the operations of IMP Electronics Solutions, expanding the PCB supplier’s presence into Australia and New Zealand.

The transaction includes IMP’s 12 employees in Australia and China and is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Founded in 1964, IMP supplies printed circuit boards to industrial and defense customers and generated approximately $9 million in sales during its 2026 financial year.

NCAB will pay an initial $4 million plus a performance-based earnout. The acquisition is expected to contribute positively to the company’s results in 2027 through supplier, logistics and sales synergies.End of article content 

TM Soldering Solutions Opens Process Development Lab

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – TM Soldering Solutions has opened a Selective Soldering Process Development Lab at its 10,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Spokane Valley.

The lab will allow customers to test circuit boards, troubleshoot manufacturing challenges and develop selective soldering processes with support from former ACE Production Technologies engineers, builders and technicians.

By 2030, China Aims to Become a Global Automotive Powerhouse

BEIJING – Beijing wants you to believe the future of the automobile is already decided. On Sept. 10, nine Chinese ministries – from the National Development and Reform Commission down to the Cyberspace Administration, because nothing in China’s industrial policy gets one signature when nine will do – rolled out the 15th Five-Year Plan for Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicles. The headline: by 2030, China intends to lock up “global automotive power” status for good.

The numbers, as always with these documents, are precise to the point of theater. New energy passenger vehicles at 70% of domestic sales, commercial at 40%. Autonomous driving “at scale.” Fuel economy down to 3.3 liters per 100km for combustion vehicles, 11.5kWh per 100km for EVs. Highways and “some” urban roads handling highly automated driving. Labor productivity up 15% over 2025. A handful of homegrown automakers cracking the global top 10 in sales, and parts suppliers cracking the top 100. Carbon peak by 2030. Safety systems that beat human drivers, stated as fact rather than target.

It’s an impressively tidy plan for an industry that, in the rest of the world, doesn’t move in straight lines. Supply chains don’t hit five-year checkpoints on schedule, and “highly autonomous driving” has a way of staying five years out no matter which five years you’re in. What the plan does confirm, whether China clears every bar it set for itself, is the direction of travel: state resources aimed squarely at owning the vehicle electronics and software stack, not just the sheet metal. For anyone in PCB fabrication, EMS, or component supply watching China’s share of automotive electronics demand, that’s the part of this release that matters more than the fuel-economy decimal points.

The industry will spend the next four years finding out how much of this is delivered and how much is aspiration wearing an official seal. Worth watching either way.

Managing Vias in Very High Data-Rate Differential Pairs

Managing via structures can minimize signal degradation and enable differential pairs to operate at data rates as high as 56Gb/s.
by Lee Ritchey

Vias are the plated through-holes in a printed circuit board used to connect device signal pins to the traces in the PCB. As shown in Figure 1, for signals whose frequency content is below three gigahertz, the effects of these vias are visible but not significant. The dip in the signal is caused by the via’s parasitic capacitance. (This plot was used to show that a right-angle bend does not cause a signal integrity problem.)

For signals with useful frequencies above three gigahertz, the foregoing may not be true. In fact, not knowing about these via effects and doing something to minimize them can result in signal degradation so severe that the data path does not function. This article explains why this happens and how to minimize these effects. For data rates as high as 56Gb/s, it’s necessary to use low-loss laminates.

AI is Reshaping the PCB Industry

Advanced substrates and high-layer-count boards, not smartphones and PCs, are now the growth engine.
by Dr. Hayao Nakahara

How things change in just one generation. If we look back 25 years or so, computers and networking systems were pushing technology and fabricator revenues, with smartphones showing signs of a coming shift. There were four billion-dollar printed circuit board fabricators, two each from the US and Japan.

Last year, however, some 29 fabricators cleared the $1 billion mark, and all but two, TTM and AT&S, were based in Asia.

The data point to a decisive shift in what’s driving PCB demand: after decades in which PCs, tablets and especially smartphones set the pace, growth is now concentrated in advanced IC package substrates and high-layer-count multilayer boards feeding AI hardware for hyperscalers like Google, Meta, AWS and Microsoft. Taiwan and China, home to the bulk of global chip packaging and assembly capacity, continue to widen their lead over Western and Japanese fabricators, several of which have been acquired or absorbed in recent years. Global PCB output will reach $135 billion in 2026, driven largely by continued investment in substrates – although ballooning capacity and looming materials and technology shifts could test the durability of the current boom.

The Electron: A Biography and the Emergence of Soldering

The electron’s story traces how discoveries in electricity and electromagnetism helped drive the development of telegraphy, telephones, electric lighting and soldering.
by Ronald C. Lasky

Folks, the following post is some of what I presented at SMTA PanPac February 2-6, 2026 with a little of the history of soldering added.

My interest in the history of electronics was piqued when I attended a mid-1990s lecture by Nobel laureate Arno Penzias on the same topic. Penzias was a co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background, which strongly supports the Big Bang creation theory of the universe.

A striking feature of Penzias’s talk was when he said: “In 1972, one megabyte of computer memory cost $1 million. That is about what a small apartment building, in New Jersey, cost back then. Today (1994), a megabyte of memory could not buy a hinge on a door in the apartment building.”

How Electronics Complexity Is Changing SMT Manufacturing

Connected equipment, inspection, material management and production data are reshaping SMT manufacturing for increasingly complex electronics.
by Scott Zerkle

Electronics developers continue to pack more functionality into smaller, more sophisticated designs. This progress creates a more demanding production environment for PCB manufacturers. Denser board designs and smaller components leave less room for variation, while manufacturers are being asked to support a broader range of products without sacrificing quality or throughput.

Growing product complexity is being felt across manufacturing. In a recent survey of manufacturing leaders, 67% described their products as very or extremely complex, up 20 percentage points from the previous year.

For PCB assemblers, this complexity extends beyond the design itself. Production lines must accommodate a wider range of products, materials and assembly requirements while continuing to deliver consistent quality and throughput.

Building Your Own IoT: Equipment Monitoring for New and Legacy Systems

PCB fabricators can pair IoT monitoring with AI to track equipment behavior, troubleshoot setups and build useful operating records.
by Sean Patterson

Walk through a printed circuit fabrication shop and ask how people know the equipment is running normally. Some machines have useful displays and records. Others depend on an operator checking a gauge, writing down a reading, or hearing something that doesn’t sound right. A lot of knowledge lives with the person standing next to the machine.

That works until a problem develops between checks or the person who usually catches it isn’t there. A drilling machine stops, a press needs attention and now production has to work around it. Later, someone asks when the problem started, and there may not be much of a record to check.

If you’ve priced a monitoring system, you know the costs can include hardware, installation, and ongoing software fees. Older equipment can add another expense when it needs custom work to connect.

In Case You Missed It

Flex Circuits

“Facile Preparation of High-Precision Flexible Circuits through Combining Inkjet Printing and Template Plating”

Authors: Qing Li, et al.

Abstract: Driven by the rapid evolution of electronic devices toward multifunctionality and portability, circuits fabricated on flexible substrates require increasingly higher manufacturing precision to support the integration of high-density electronic components. In this work, a facile strategy combining inkjet printing and template plating was proposed to fabricate high-precision flexible circuits. An adhesive layer was first introduced onto the polyimide substrate to enhance interfacial adhesion and substrate compatibility, followed by inkjet printing of a resin solution to form circuit templates. The uniform template with an average line width of 58.5μm was obtained by optimizing the printing parameters. The printed template was chemically modified via alkali treatment and Ag activation, which generates catalytically active sites for selective electroless Cu plating. The uniform Cu circuits with an average width of 63.2μm were obtained, exhibiting low resistivity of 8.45μΩ cm, strong adhesion strength of 5B, and excellent fatigue resistance under cyclic bending. Moreover, the Sn circuit was electroplated based on the Cu circuit template. The precision consistency of the Sn circuits was confirmed by electrical fusing tests according to the corresponding national standard (GB/T 9364.4-2016). The Sn circuit also exhibited strong thermal stability during reflow cycles at 220°C. These results demonstrate the enormous application potential of the proposed strategy for the additive manufacturing of high-precision flexible circuits. (Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, vol. 37, number 1900, Aug. 26, 2026, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10854-026-18254-0)