PEACHTREE CITY, GA – Registration for the PCB East 2024 conference and exhibits rose 18% overall year-over-year, the Printed Circuit Engineering Association announced today. Conference registration was up 12% from last year, while the expo-only trade show registration rose 9% over the same period.

NEEDHAM, MA – Global shipments of augmented reality and virtual reality headsets declined 67.4% year over year in the first quarter, according to new data from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker.

TAIPEI – Smartphone production grew 18.7% year over year in the first quarter with a total of 296 million units shipped, but is projected to decline 5-10% in the second quarter due to inventory adjustments, TrendForce reported.

BOSTON – SMTA's Boston chapter will meet in person on June 25, with two presentations set for attendees: "The Impact of Ultra HDI Fabrication Technology on PCB Assembly" presented by Chrys Shea, and "SMT Specification Performance in PCB Assembly" presented by Mike Sivigny.

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – Keytronic is notifying potentially affected parties and regulatory agencies of a data breach that saw more than 500GB of its data stolen.

OULU, FINLAND – Scanfil has adjusted its projected turnover and operating downward for 2024, with a new forecast of EUR780 million to EUR840 million ($835 million to $899.2 million) in turnover and an operating profit of EUR 54 million to EUR61 million ($57.8 million to $65.3 million).

MIAMI – Element Solutions has raised its guidance range for the second quarter and full year 2024, with its projected EBITDA to be approximately $135 million in the second quarter and between $530 million and $545 million for the full year.

WASHINGTON – NextFlex, the Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored Manufacturing Innovation Institute focused on maturing hybrid electronics, has released Project Call 9.0 (PC 9.0), its latest call for proposals that seek to fund projects that further the development and adoption of hybrid electronics while addressing key challenges in advanced manufacturing.

ATLANTA – The electronic components sales sentiment fell to 112.3 in May, down nearly 12 points from April but still marking the fourth month of positive overall sentiment, ECIA found in its latest Electronic Component Sales Trend survey.

BRUSSELS – Despite the adoption of the European Chips Act, the EU’s market share in critical electronics components beyond chips, including PCBs, EMS and advanced packaging, will decline to 15% by 2035, according to a new IPC report.

WASHINGTON – Global semiconductor industry sales were $46.4 billion in April, an increase of 15.8% compared to the April 2023 total of $40.1 billion and 1.1% more than the March 2024 total of $45.9 billion, SIA announced.

MILPITAS, CA – Global semiconductor equipment billings contracted 2% year-over-year to $26.4 billion in the first quarter, while quarter-over-quarter billings dropped 6% during the same period, SEMI announced in its Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report.