ATLANTA, GA – After a steep projected decline in April, component industry sentiment stabilized in May, according to just-published results from ECIA’s Electronic Component Sales Trend (ECST) survey.

Among the many surprises at PCB East this spring was the appearance of a pair of scientists from a semi-obscure (to we laypeople) government contractor called, obliquely, JLab.

JLab is shorthand for Jefferson Lab, or its official name, the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF). The facility is operated on behalf of the US Department of Energy, which has a budget larger than Jabil or Flex, and oversees, among other things, the US nuclear arsenal.

Now, in the event you haven’t been paying attention, the US government has been in the media kind of often of late, for reasons too numerous for this page to detail. But one big newsworthy item has been the administration’s efforts to change the federal government’s budget priorities.

SINGAPORE – MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions has expanded its production facility at 14 Tuas Avenue 10, doubling its manufacturing footprint and boosting capacity for Argomax, the company’s silver sintering paste. This multi-million-dollar investment aims to meet rising global demand for high-performance materials used in power electronics, particularly in the electric vehicle (EV) sector.

NEEDHAM, MA – IDC this week sharply reduced its global smartphone shipment forecast to 0.6%, down from 2.3% projected earlier this year. The downgrade reflects growing economic uncertainty, tariff volatility and weakening consumer demand.