Sep 16, 2026 Association Updates Sustainability Reporting Resource for the Electronics Industry Global Electronics Association relaunched its updated DMA Toolkit, simplifying double materiality planning amid evolving CSRD and ESRS rules. The resource helps electronics companies assess sustainability impacts, risks and opportunities across operations and value chains. Global Electronics Association

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FCC Rule on Optical Connectivity Could Slow AI Race Washington is expanding its China tech restrictions beyond advanced chips to data-center infrastructure. A new FCC rule targets optical transceivers, potentially excluding Chinese suppliers from U.S. AI networks and reshaping supply chains for high-speed connectivity components. EE Times

Evaluation of Techniques for Intentional Contamination of PWB Substrates for Quantitative Cleanliness Analyses Intentional contamination of PWBs offers a practical and controlled approach for evaluating cleanliness analysis techniques and for developing meaningful and effective cleanliness guidelines. Technical Paper

China's US$4.5 trillion electronics target confronts the limits of manufacturing scale China's 15th Five-Year Plan targets electronics manufacturing with advanced technologies, innovation, digital transformation and stronger supply chains. The strategy seeks to boost global competitiveness and support sustainable industrial growth. Digitimes

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What Exactly Is Bluetooth Tethering And When Should You Use It? Bluetooth tethering lets smartphones share cellular internet with laptops while using less battery and offering a discreet, paired connection. Although slower than Wi-Fi hotspots, it suits low-bandwidth tasks like emails, browsing, documents, and messaging during travel or remote work. BGR

How To Control Flux When Hand Soldering? Can you recommend tools, materials or processes that will allow for precision application of no-clean flux for hand soldering operations? The Assembly Brothers, Jim Hall and Phil Zarrow, answer this question. Board Talk

Technical Papers ■ Oxide Reduction for Reliable Electronics Manufacturing ■ UHDI Fabrication for IC Substrates: SAP and mSAP Processes ■ Flux-Free, Reliable, Efficient: Soldering with Formic Acid ■ Redesigning Material Logistics for High-Mix EMS Production ■ Unlocking Academic-Industry Synergy: A Collaborative Model for Hands-On Electronics Manufacturing Education ■ Viscosity Does Not Equal Rheology: What Solder Paste Measurements Really Tell You ■ Salvaging Electronic Components: A Reliable Method for Reducing Electronic Waste and Ensuring Economic Reuse ■ Digital Warehouse Automation in High-Mix PCB Assembly MORE TECHNICAL PAPERS

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Trump calls AI safety concerns a "hoax," says a "high IQ" president is the only guardrail needed Trump has rejected calls from AI leaders including Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk for stronger oversight, audits, and safety standards. He argues regulation could weaken US competitiveness with China, while protests and global concerns over AI risks continue. TechSpot

Designing Passive Components for LEO Satellite Systems LEO constellation growth complicates passive-component selection. Engineers must balance mission needs, environmental conditions, volume, reliability, cost, traceability, availability and qualification across spacecraft systems for missions. EE Times

Stencil Aperture Design for Next Generation Ultra Fine Pitch Printing The work reported here represents the start of a series of experiments to help further understand the significance of square vs circular aperture formats. Technical Paper

Sponsor Probe Card Manufacturer 'Sees the Unseen' With X-ray Probe card manufacturer relies on mobile real-time x-ray inspection to verify the quality of its aligned probes at different stages along the assembly line. Glenbrook Technologies

Will AI really destroy humanity? Pioneers who created the tech weigh in AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton have renewed warnings about catastrophic risks from rapidly advancing AI. Researchers from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind urge stronger safety measures, while policymakers debate regulation over AI's future capabilities. CNBC

The AI Inference Revolution Is Here AI's focus is shifting from model training to inference as reasoning and agentic AI drive demand. Data movement and memory bottlenecks challenge GPUs, prompting companies to develop memory-centric architectures using DRAM, SRAM and advanced HBM. IEEE Spectrum

Backward Compatible Solder Joint Reliability Under Accelerated Conditions Accelerated temperature cycling was used to assess the thermal fatigue reliability of a Pb free grid array package assembled. Technical Paper

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Potential AI slowdown is not 'end of the world' for data center real estate, says Digital Realty CEO AI slowdown concerns have pressured data center REIT stocks, but industry leaders say demand remains strong. McKinsey expects AI to drive 70% of global data center capacity by 2030, while inference, cloud growth and adoption support continued expansion. CNBC

The Mind-bending Joyrides That Gave Rise to Tesla Tesla's founders used AC Propulsion's fast tZero to attract Elon Musk's attention in 2003–04. Musk rejected the practical eBox but backed a high-performance strategy, investing $6.35 million and becoming Tesla's largest shareholder and chairman. IEEE Spectrum

Sponsor Eliminate Worry of Cross Contamination While Models 529 and 1550 are similar semi-automatic cleaners with single wash and rinse tanks, the Model 2003 includes 2 wash tanks for cleaning multiple applications in one machine. Smart Sonic

AI Data Centers Have A Stranded Power Problem Data centers waste power through idle hardware, conservative voltage settings and redundant supplies. Engineers use efficient architectures, real-time monitoring and dynamic voltage scaling to boost efficiency while safely using reserved capacity. Semiconductor Engineering

Flowers of Sulfur Creep Corrosion Testing of Populated PCBs Creep corrosion testing of printed circuit boards using a specially designed flowers of sulfur chamber has been pioneered by an iNEMI technical committee. Technical Paper

Scientists Found An Unexpected Pattern In Mars' Atmosphere That Mirrors Earth NASA's MAVEN mission detected the Zwan-Wolf effect in Mars' ionosphere during a 2023 solar storm, revealing limited atmospheric protection. Scientists say Mars still faces major radiation, gravity and atmospheric challenges for future colonization. BGR

The US military said it has deployed weapons in space. Here's what that could mean The US acknowledged deploying conventional weapons in orbit to defend American forces, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said. Officials withheld details, citing concerns over China, Russia and escalation as space militarization grows further. CNN

Sponsor Eliminate Voids for High-Reliability Applications Voids compromise reliability. Achieve near zero-voiding with our vacuum reflow for automotive, micro-bumping, and advanced electronics. Send your boards to see the results. Heller Industries

Trump calls AI slowdown a conspiracy that helps China, closing off Washington support US AI developers' calls to slow frontier model development are clashing with intense technological rivalry. While proponents seek safer, more responsible progress, competitive pressures between the US and China continue driving rapid advances in artificial intelligence. Digitimes