Another Productronica has come and gone. What did we learn?

That the biggest trend – besides the ubiquitous white sneakers attendees wore – was size. (Glass-free substrates were a close second.) More on that in a moment.

For those not in the know, Productronica is the largest printed circuit fabrication and assembly event outside of East Asia. And not by a little: It outdraws Apex by about 40,000 attendees. (That’s not a typo.) It takes up over one million sq. ft. of floor space across eight halls the size of airplane hangars on the eastern side of Munich.

Given the staggering size, it seems strange, then, to note that many companies were missing! Only a small number of the world’s laminate, drill, wet processing, and bare board test and inspection suppliers were present. Most of the biggest names on the assembly side were represented, yet Chinese and Taiwanese vendors were largely absent. Was it cost? Market dynamics? Politics? The answer isn’t clear.

Several of the hundreds of suppliers – more than 1,600, according to show organizers, not that I was going to count them – demonstrated equipment intended to handle boards 1 meter or longer, or large-sized BGAs (150 x 150mm or larger). Conversations with the major SMT placement companies, all of which were present, reminded me of the late 1990s, when so-called “surfboards” intended for server applications were all the rage. Today, of course, it’s the same, only instead of driving internet traffic, they are processing AI applications.

And while Wall Street might obsess over a looming AI bubble, the talk at the show was directed toward the industry’s relative slowness, and a lack of visibility extending into the first quarter of 2026.

The single most interesting machine I saw was Keiron Technologies’ LiFT solder paste printer. The system, which was discussed earlier in the year but not shown until now, prints solder through glass via a laser, eliminating stencils. If the basis for the technology sounds familiar, it could be because the semiconductor industry has applied a version of it for years.

An onboard metrology system measures the solder paste volume. Its reported print-volume tolerances are +/-50%, and the print accuracy (again, reported, since there’s no data published yet) was 50µm @2Σ on 0.05µm BGAs. It’s not ready for volume stencil production, and the accuracy might need tightening, but for quickturn prototyping, eliminating the need for stencils is a valuable advancement.

The machine is in beta at a site in New England, and another US EMS I spoke directly with said they would absolutely buy it, provided it works. That’s no small decision, as the reported (there’s that word again!) price is well above that of standard stencil printers.

Keiron’s management is made up of former Mycronic veterans. That’s significant to me, because roughly two decades ago this same team helped introduce Mydata’s (Mycronic’s precursor) stencil-free jet dispenser, which allowed users to deposit varying volumes of paste across a single PCB. It didn’t obsolete conventional printers, but it did prove more than a novelty, especially for certain types of array packages.

We often speak of innovation and how we need to continue to adapt and improve. We even make innovation responsible for our well-being – if we don’t innovate, someone else will and to the winner goes the spoils.

But what is innovation? Certainly, performance goals must factor in. But ultimately you can’t solve the innovation puzzle if you haven’t mapped out the financial argument. Ten years from now, the Keiron platform might not be mainstream. But for its developers, the business case they are about to make is well-rehearsed and understood.

As for the white shoes, yes, I have a pair too. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

P.S.: A word of thanks to our customers, board members, readers, friends and colleagues around the industry. You make us better in every way, and our sole purpose is to provide the electronics engineering network to help you in your jobs. Our sincere wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2026!

Mike Buetow is president of PCEA (pcea.net); mike@pcea.net.

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